Fourth Wing: Chapter Summary and Spoilers (Chapters 32-39)

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Chapter Summary & Spoilers (Chapters 32-39)

The Bite-Sized Version

Our main character Violet is out here living her best rom-com life by prancing barefoot across a deadly parapet to find broody boy Xaden, and we FINALLY get what we have been waiting for when they confess their feelings to each other! What follows is the steamiest scene ever (we’re talking five rounds and blown-out windows, people!) until they’re rudely interrupted by what seems to be an attack. Plot twist: it’s just War Games! Xaden smoothly picks Violet for his special squad, and poor Dain Aetos is over here looking like someone stole his lunch money.

But hold onto your dragons because things get DARK real quick at Athebyne. Turns out Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Secretive has been running a whole rebel operation with gryphon fliers, smuggling weapons to fight these supposedly “mythical” venin who are very much real and terrorizing villages. Then everything goes to hell in a handbasket during a battle at Resson trading post – we’re talking venin attack, wyverns, and the gut-punch moment where our precious Liam sacrifices himself to save Violet and Tairn (I’m not crying, you’re crying!). Chaos erupts, Xaden protects civilians with his shadow magic while Violet unleashes her lightning strikes, creating a battle that defies all expectations. The wyverns – those supposedly mythical creatures – breathe blue fire and work alongside the venin in a terrifying assault that transforms a supposed military training exercise into a fight for survival. With Liam’s heroic sacrifice echoing in her mind and Xaden holding back a horde of wyverns, Violet and her dragons launch into a revenge mission, taking a unexpected hit. Our girl takes an unexpected skydiving lesson off Tairn’s back, which was definitely NOT part of the curriculum. Just another day in the Kingdom of Navarre!

The finale is serving DRAMA with a capital D! Xaden whisks a poisoned Violet off to Aretia (you know, that city that supposedly burned down but SURPRISE, it’s actually rebel central). While she’s recovering, we get all the angsty relationship tension because, hello, trust issues! But the real show-stopper? Just when you think we can’t handle any more plot twists, in walks Violet’s supposedly dead brother Brennan like “Hey sis, welcome to the rebellion!” EXCUSE ME?! Rebecca Yarros really said “You thought you knew things? That’s cute.”

The Bit-Sized Version

CHAPTER 32

This bit starts with our main character Violet deciding to live dangerously by prancing across the parapet barefoot to find her broody boy Xaden Riorson, which leads to THE confession scene where they finally spill all the tea about their feelings – including his jealous moments and her insecurities. What follows is basically the hottest thing ever – we’re talking five rounds of steaminess that literally causes Violet’s signet power to blow out windows, mixed with the sweetest little moments of him playing with her hair and being all soft… until Garrick crashes their party with news of an attack. Major props to them for squeezing in all that quality time before duty called!

• Violet decides to take a moonlit stroll across the infamous Basgiath War College Parapet (in a dress, barefoot – because I guess the Parapet is fun now and not a death trap?) to find her broody boy Xaden, who’s out there being all emo because it’s the anniversary of his Xaden’s father’s death. Bold move, but we stan a risk-taking queen! 
• After some acrobatics (and Xaden having approximately seventeen heart attacks watching her cross), Violet decides it’s time to spill the tea. She reads him the receipts, listing every single soft boy thing he’s done – from leaving her flowers, to finding excuses for extra training sessions, those lingering looks.. 
• Then comes the jealousy confessions. Xaden admits he almost lost it seeing Dain Aetos kiss her (my man was HOLDING onto that one), and Violet being all insecure about Imogen (who’s actually into Garrick, which… valid). And the readers are like we knew this 10 chapters ago glad we are all now on the same page now. 
• They go back to Xaden’s room and we finally get THE MOMENT. Violet just puts her whole heart out there like “I’m so wildly in love with you that I can’t imagine what my life would even look like without you in it.” She knows he might not say it back, but she chooses bravery. And Xaden’s response? “You have everything I have to give.” SWOON!!
• Then things get HOT. Like, blow-out-the-windows hot (literally – girl’s signet power got a little… explosive). Their chemistry is off the charts, Xaden is like ““I fucking need you, Violet” and Violet is like “catch me if you can.” Well Violet finds out that he indeed can, and he will, FIVE TIMES! The way he takes his time with her? The way they can’t keep their hands off each other? The playful counting of how many times… yeah, maybe we’ll take this one off line…
• Their intimate moments are somehow both steamy and sweet. Between the passionate kisses and that “I’m never going to get enough of you” energy, there’s all these tender moments – him playing with her hair, checking if she’s okay, just being genuinely soft with each other. We love it!
• Of course, because Basgiath War College has the worst timing, Garrick shows up announcing they’re under attack and everyone is needed in formation. Like, read the room, enemies!

CHAPTER 33

This bit begins mid-awkward interruption of round 5 of Violet and Xaden doing the dirty. We’re not sure how they haven’t burned down the entire school by now. Thankfully they haven’t, but this surprise attack might judging by the pandemonium they’re thrown into trying to get to the flight field. Ha ha just kidding! The surprise attack is actually just a surprise challenge. These teachers are masters of *dramatique timing*.

• Give Violet and Xaden their Tony Award for their mid-scene quick change. Xaden is obviously more smooth at this than Violet, having enough time to worry about her getting cold (cute) and give her one of his flight jackets (hot).
• Everyone’s obviously panicking but bad gal Rhiannon decides to focus on the more important topic at hand, that Violet’s wearing Xaden Riorson’s jacket and she knows they were up to some shenanigans. She’s still #1 BFF though as she artfully hides it from helicopter mom, Dain (Do we need to specify anymore?). 
• Plot twist! The whole “emergency” thing? Just War Games being extra dramatic. Way to give everyone a heart attack at 4 AM. 
• Everyone’s getting hyped for this five-day “pretend war” situation and it’s like the most agro final exam ever. Each wing is assigned to different locations, and Fourth Wing is assigned to the southeast region.
• Xaden gets assigned to this sus location called Athebyne that’s beyond the wards. Violet quickly realizes that’s where he had that mystery mission earlier. Susx2. 
• Violet meets up with Tairn and Andarna and realizes Xaden had a special harness made for smol golden dragon Andarna. Omfg. Now that Xaden Riorson’s revealed like two whole feelings, everything he does melts every single one of our hearts.
• Including! When he drops the drama bomb and lets their squad know he’s taking Violet, Liam, and Imogen for his special forces squad. Dain’s immediately like, “WHAT NO NOT VIOLET NO.” Good luck, Liam and Imogen???
• Xaden obviously pulls the dragon bond and Violet being an all-powerful lightning wielder card because any other excuse would require him to reveal a third emotion. Dain’s obviously not buying it and pulls the “he’s trying to sneak you away to kill you card” because he’s a brown noser and a sore loser. 
• Violet’s like, “but I tRuSt HiM” and tells them both she’s going with Xaden (good choice). Xaden makes eyes at her and Dain goes sad puppy as he realizes they’re a thing. La-hoo-zuh-her.
• That ending though? Both guys walking away in different directions while Violet struggles with how this is going to change everything… GIVE US THE DRAMA! 

CHAPTER 34

This bit opens as our squad takes a long flight to Athebyne, stopping at a lake where Violet senses something strange about the magic. In a surprising display of trust, Xaden shows his softer side by openly holding Violet’s hand and sharing an intimate moment with her, complete with massages and possessive sweet nothings. Just as things get steamy, gryphon fliers interrupt them – but instead of a fight breaking out when they recognize Violet, Xaden calmly reveals he was expecting them all along…

• So we’ve got our squad doing a casual seven-hour flight beyond the wards to an outpost called Athebyne, with baby golden dragon Andarna passed OUT and hooked to large black dragon Tairn’s harness like a tiny dragon backpack. Cute.
• They stop at this gorgeous lake for a breather, where Violet’s like something feels off about the magic. Meanwhile, Xaden’s all of the sudden holding Violet’s hand in public which was a big no no like one chapter ago!! And he’s like “yeah, these are my ride-or-dies, I trust them with my secrets”…ok. 
• Xaden then takes Violet to the side to have a private moment with her where he massages her sore muscles and whispers sweet things to her. Our Shadow Daddy is out here dropping possessive lines like “I’m going to keep you” and “You’re mine” – and Violet’s admitting Xaden is her “dangerous addiction.” Same girl, same. 
• Out of nowhere the steamy session gets crashed by some gryphon fliers!!! One of them immediately clock’s Violet’s silver hair like “Oh hey, aren’t you General Sorrengail’s kid?” This girl should really consider dying her hair.
• Then just when we are all expecting an epic showdown…here comes the PLOT TWISTS. Instead of letting Violet go all lightning queen on these intruders, Xaden literally RESTRAINS her, hands her off to Liam, and strolls up to these supposed enemies with a casual “you’re fucking early.” Excuse me, WHAT?!

CHAPTER 35

This bit quite literally shoves our main character into the emotional thunder dome where all of Violet’s fear starts to come true. We got lies, we got betrayal, we got deceit, we got creepy magical creatures from the storybook of your nightmares. As it turns out, her dead father is the only man in her life telling her the truth and also we’re all in our first real fight with Xaden Riorson. But we need to discuss it later because the squad very quickly finds out the War Games are actually serious as a heart attack.

• Well friends, it was good while it lasted. Xaden reveals that he’s been having secret meetups with the gryphon fliers, and Violet realizes everyone in their squad is in the rebellion marks club except for her. Queue all of Violet’s fear coming true.
• So…the venin…from kids’ bedtime stories…are real. What kind of sick children’s authors work in the Kingdom of Navarre. We also learn that they’re actually willy nilly attacking villages beyond the kingdom’s border. Much to Violet’s dismay, Navarre is hiding behind its wards that keep them out, and aren’t letting anyone else in.
• Xaden starts revealing his sinister secrets that he is basically running a weapons smuggling operation, taking weapons made from ward materials to help them against the venin attack (following in daddy’s footsteps, but hopefully not the whole execution part).
• Violet starts putting two-and-two together and realizes her cryptic note from her dad was actually a massive clue. Turns out history books are full of LIES and just disappeared the venin all together. We guess we can only believe what Disney tells us about history now.
• She then turns her talents on Xaden and is like, “YOU GORGEOUS TRAITOR.” And he tries to salvage whatever of their relationship is left by telling her all of it is real between them and he never lied when he said he couldn’t live without her. Oh, now the emotions are conveniently flooding out. 
• What’s worse is her dragons also knew. Her DRAGONS!! Can anyone get a pulse check on Violet.
• They fly to Athebyne and it’s a ghost town. They quickly realize they’re not in Kansas anymore as they find a note from Colonel Aeros saying their mission is to survive, if they can. Sir, this is supposed to be a SCHOOL EXERCISE.
• Why not let’s throw in another betrayal! Colonel Aetos found out about Xaden’s secret missions from none other than…drum roll…DAIN reading Violet’s memories without her knowing. Consent. Is. Sexy. Dain. Is. Not.
• Ponder this later, Violet. Something scary is coming their way, and we’re back on our cliff hanging as Xaden tells Violet they’ve been sent there to die. Can we pre-schedule Violet’s therapy appointment if they survive.

CHAPTER 36

This bit starts with a creepy venin attack at Resson trading post and turns into pure chaos when supposedly “mythical” wyverns show up breathing blue fire everywhere. In a gut-punch moment, our hero Liam sacrifices himself to save Violet and Tairn, but not before dropping crucial intel about two mysterious riders leading the attack. In the end we see Xaden Riorson holding off a wyvern horde with shadow magic while Violet and Tairn’s revenge mission gets slightly derailed…

• Things kick off with our squad rolling up to a trading post called Resson where four venin (think: super creepy magic users with red eyes and corrupted blood) are wreaking havoc. Our squad has seconds to make an impossible choice: save the civilians or keep their military positions. Being the heroes they are, they obviously choose to fight!
• PLOT TWIST! Those “mythical” wyvern everyone keeps chatting about? Yeah, not so mythical after all! These two-legged dragon wannabes show up breathing blue fire everywhere and working with the venin. The history books had ONE job…
• Things get seriously dark when Soleil and her dragon Fuil encounter a venin who’s literally sucking the life out of everything around them – they’re turned into husks in seconds. I was NOT emotionally prepared for this.
• Everyone’s going all out in this battle. Violet’s throwing lightning, Xaden’s got his shadow game strong protecting civilians, and the whole squad is just trying to keep as many people alive as possible, but can we remember they are FRESHMEN.
• And then… oh my HEART… Liam sacrifices himself to save Violet and Tairn from a wyvern attack. His dragon Deigh dies in this absolutely gut-wrenching mid-air battle, which means Liam’s dying too. Queue the tears as Violet holds a dying Liam who makes her promise to look after his sister Sloane. I’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING! 
• Just when you think it can’t get worse, a whole horde of wyvern shows up. Liam comes through with crucial intel about the riders even in his final moments. That’s our boy!! Liam’s last words? There are two riders leading this nightmare parade and stopping them will take out their bonded wyvern.
• Final scene: Xaden’s holding back a wall of wyvern with his shadows while Violet and Tairn launch into revenge mode. But they take a hit from a sneak attack wyvern because apparently this chapter hadn’t hurt us enough yet.

CHAPTER 37

This bit picks up from the sneak attack from a venin and her wyvern on Tairn and Violet. The venin challenges Violet to a death match after quite literally stabbing Tairn in the back while he’s flying. Where is Violet’s stunt double when we need her. Our girl doesn’t let us down though, and uses her Scribe Quadrant smarts (and a little (a lot) help from her dragons) to help them win. The win of course comes at a cost, as Violet takes an unexpected sky dive.

• As Tairn is busy saving everyone and keeping Violet alive, how do we thank him? Letting a venin sneak up and stab him between the dragon scales. No wonder he’s such a curmudgeon. Violet’s like “that’s my dragon you bitch” and dives into a mid-air fight with the venin.
• Hand-to-hand might be an area of growth opportunity for Violet and her physical frailty as she gets her arm snapped by the venin and takes a poisoned dagger to the side. BUT, our situationship are still a power couple and take down the venin with a signet power combo of Xaden’s shadows, Violet’s lightning, and a well placed dagger.
• Brain blast! As the venin dies, Violet realizes that the wyvern she created went night-night, too. We have two new targets in this game, folks, and they’re the two riders leading the venin charge.
• Smol golden dragon Andarna shows up and is like, “I’m helping!” And Violet’s like, “not NOW.” This two year old is going to give us a heart attack.
• Violet paniques as a mysterious venin called “The Sage” appears out of nowhere near Xaden, but when she goes zippity-zap on him he disappears. Wut le fuq???
• Xaden’s body is shaking like all of us at Pilates from the exhaustion coming from holding his shadow wall up against all the venin. Violet’s like, “trust me for once in your life, and drop it” and Xaden knows he’s still in trouble with the Mrs. so he does as he’s told.
• Thank gawd Violet’s training finally kicks in as she proceeds to take the gamble Vegas never would’ve called and pulls BOTH dragons’ powers to slow down time and taking Tairn’s full juice to deliver on a lightning show for the ages. She takes down one of two riders and a ton of wyvern fall as well. LFG!!
• After she goes full Avengers she realizes her body has been pushed a bit too much with the whole poisoned stab wound and taking more power than anyone should know what to do with.
• Xaden quickly swoops in with the assist and shadow-strangles the last rider, stabbing him as he falls. Hot.
• Just as everyone’s like, “we won!” Violet’s like, “yaaaay” and proceeds to fall into oblivion off of Tairn’s back. Maybe that Scribe Quadrant quiet life would have been a good idea after all…

CHAPTER 38

This bit opens with our main character Violet plummeting from the sky while bb golden dragon Andarna and Xaden Riorson try their best to save her, she ends up getting stabbed with this sus green dagger that’s making her blood turn BLACK. Xaden goes full protective boyfriend mode and is like “I know a secret place” while everyone’s freaking out about him revealing their sinister secrets. Meanwhile, Violet’s over here having a whole internal guilt spiral about Liam and Dain Aetos while her literal life force is draining from her.

• Our girl Violet is literally falling from the sky when absolute MVP smol queen Andarna swoops in and pulls a whole time-freeze moment. Unshockingly, she’s not quite strong enough to stop the fall completely. A+ for effort though bb golden dragon!
• Things are looking ROUGH. Violet’s been shanked with some fancy green poison dagger that’s cutting off all her magical connections. Xaden who catches the rest of her fall with his shadows, promptly loses his entire mind because her blood is turning BLACK! Violet’s poor chances of survival are not looking good right now…
• The squad’s having a full-on panic meeting trying to figure out what to do. Basgiath War College is too far (12 hours) and Violet isn’t going to make it. Xaden is in full protective boyfriend mode (yes, I said boyfriend, fight me) and is like “I know a place” and everyone else is like “BUT AT WHAT COST” and he’s just like “DON’T CARE, WE’RE GOING”.  The sinister secrets are getting to be too much my friends!!
• Even while on the edge of being on tomorrows death toll, Violet’s internal monologue is giving us DRAMA. She’s in excruciating pain, describing it as feeling like she’s being burned alive, meanwhile she’s thinking she deserves this because of what happened with Liam and Dain’s stolen memories that caused this. Girl, focus on staying alive first, we can unpack the trauma later!
• The chapter ends with them flying over these dramatic thousand-foot Cliffs of Dralor (geography lesson is a bit much at this time Rebecca) heading to some mysterious location…

CHAPTER 39

Take a deep breath, people. Our heroine pulls through. This bit ends the book with a pivot to Xaden Riorson’s POV and an absolute BOMB drop of a revelation at the end that leaves us all speechless and immediately ready to devour the next book (or next set of bits ;)). 

• Poor Xaden’s been glued to his armchair for three whole days watching Violet like a hawk while she’s knocked out from poison. Her physical frailty is more obvious than he’s ever seen it and he’s spiraling in silence over it.
• While playing intense nursemaid, Xaden has this whole internal monologue about falling for Violet that makes us all realize he’s been hiding more than three feelings for her. He’s like, “even if I survive, I know I can’t live without her” as we find out that this whole thing has been building from a thousand tiny moments starting on DAY ONE and solidified when she mastered her shield and smiled up at him in the snow. Maybe don’t wait 39 chapters and while Violet’s on her deathbed next time to tell us this, bud.
• But then…she’s awake! And with temporary amnesia! Violet kisses him and he’s like “I stg I’ll do better” and she’s like “what are you talking about.” Enter: dragon telepathy. Xaden watches as her memories come flooding back from whatever they’re telling her and he realizes their reunion might be harder than he thought.
• Scribe Quadrant savant Violet immediately puts together that they’re in Aretia, the city that supposedly burnt to the ground. Xaden reveals that it’s in the process of being rebuilt, and she guesses that Melgren (and his witchy future telling abilities) can’t see this because there are more than three rebels together all the time here. What a cheat code!
• Liam’s death hits both of them like a blow, and if you listen closely, you can hear the sounds of our hearts breaking as Xaden gives Violet a little carving of golden dragon bb Andarna that Liam had been working on. Where are my tissues.
• Violet’s like, “gimme a sec to get my sh*t together” and Xaden leaves the room where fellow cadets Bodhi and Garrick are waiting. We find out that everyone else made it out alive, including Syrena and her sister, but not unscathed. Bodhi’s rocking a sling, and Garrick’s got a new face scar that we’re sure makes him *almost* as hot as Xaden.
• As they’re catching up, it’s revealed that they had found a mysterious iron box that Chradh (Garrick’s dragon) was drawn to. Apparently, she’s drawn to runes, but they don’t know what the box actually contains yet. Sp00ky.
• Oh, and dragon update – Andarna’s apparently gone through a growth spurt, and Violet’s lost some mysterious gift. But that’s like, way down on the priority list of drama right now.
• Violet lets Xaden back in the room and is immediately like, “I’ll join your rebellion but you canNOT have my heart you secret-keeping beautiful liar.” 
• Fun fact: What we call a rebellion, they call an “apostasy” or “secession” because apparently everyone’s gotta be fancy about their political intrigue.
• Xaden is not prepared to go down without a fight, and reveals to us, but not to Violet, that of course he’s in love with her. SAY IT. OUT LOUD. SAY IT.
• But he comes through with the romantic male lead moment we all needed and gives her the next best dramatic thing, and is like, “I’d rather lose this entire war than live without you.”
• As they’re making eyes with each other, there are impatient knocks at the door. NOT AGAIN GARRICK. But, we find out it’s in fact not Garrick as in walks *pause for dramatic effect* …BRENNAN FCKING SORRENGAIL. Violet’s supposedly dead brother Brennan has apparently been living in Aretia as a rebel poison master.
• Jaws drop all over the world as the book ends with a smile from Brennan and a “Welcome to the revolution, Violet.” REBECCAAAAAAAAA!!