Fourth Wing Books in Order: The Complete Empyrean Reading Guide

If you're trying to figure out the Fourth Wing books in order, the good news is that Rebecca Yarros' Empyrean series is refreshingly simple to follow — at least for now. It's a young, ongoing series told from one continuous timeline, so publication order and story order are exactly the same thing. No novellas to squeeze in, no prequels to debate. You just start with book one and keep flying.

Here's every Empyrean book released so far, in the order you should read them, plus what we know about the books still to come.

The Fourth Wing Books in Order

Rebecca Yarros' Empyrean series follows Violet Sorrengail, a physically fragile scholar forced into the brutal dragon-riding war college her mother commands, at Basgiath War College. Three books are out as of mid-2026, with a planned five-book arc.

1. Fourth Wing (2023)

Violet Sorrengail was raised to join the Scribe Quadrant — safe, studious, indoors. Instead, her mother, the general in command of Basgiath War College, forces her into the Riders Quadrant, where the odds of surviving the first year are brutal and dragons don't bond with the weak. Violet has to survive classmates who'd rather she die quietly, a rivalry with the deadly Xaden Riorson, and a body that isn't built for war.

This is the book that turned "dragon-riding romantasy" into a genuine cultural moment, and it's the only place to start.

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2. Iron Flame (2023)

Picking up immediately where Fourth Wing ends, Iron Flame drops Violet into second year at Basgiath — with a new commanding officer who wants her dead, a bond with Xaden that's now built on secrets instead of trust, and a war that's a lot less straightforward than the College has ever admitted. Released just six months after Fourth Wing, it doubles down on the political stakes without losing the romance.

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3. Onyx Storm (2025)

Book three picks up mere hours after Iron Flame's cliffhanger and widens the scope considerably — Violet and the surviving riders head beyond Navarre's borders for the first time, and the truth about the war the wardens have been hiding gets a lot harder to ignore. It's the fastest-selling adult fiction title in Barnes & Noble's history, which tells you how this series has grown.

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What's Next: Threshing Day and Book 4

Two more releases are coming for Empyrean fans, and it's worth knowing the difference between them so you don't read one expecting the other:

• Threshing Day (September 29, 2026) — a companion anthology of 13 short stories told from the perspectives of side characters across the Empyrean world on Threshing Day, the day new cadets choose their path at Basgiath. It is not a continuation of Violet and Xaden's main story, so you can read it whenever you like without needing to catch up on anything new.
• The untitled fourth Empyrean novel — the book that actually continues Violet and Xaden's story after Onyx Storm's ending. As of mid-2026, Yarros has indicated it's unlikely to arrive before 2027, and no title or release date has been confirmed. We'll update this guide the moment that changes.

Is There a Spoiler-Safe Way to Read Fourth Wing?

Not really — and that's kind of the point. Unlike series with side novellas or prequels you can skip, Empyrean is designed to be read strictly in order: Fourth Wing, then Iron Flame, then Onyx Storm. Each book ends on a genuine cliffhanger that the next book resolves in its opening chapters, so reading out of order will spoil the ending of whichever book you skip.

The one exception is Threshing Day, which you can drop in anywhere since it runs parallel to the main timeline rather than continuing it.

More Fantasy and Romance Reading Lists

If Fourth Wing scratched a very specific itch, these guides will keep you stocked:

What do you think of the Empyrean series so far? Let us know which POV character you'd want a Threshing Day story from.

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