Rebecca Yarros has returned to the Empyrean world for book 4, and she is already warning readers that the next chapter will not spare everyone. In a March Instagram post, Yarros said she was back writing in the series “for the foreseeable future” and wrote the number 4 on a board, confirming the next book was underway.
Yarros also made clear that at least one character will not survive the fourth installment. Speaking about the book, she said “someone you love won’t make it in book 4,” then added that the loss could be “someone you don’t love, but someone someone else does.” Her point was blunt: the series is set in war, and “losses are real.”
That matters because the Empyrean books have become one of the biggest commercial forces in modern fantasy. Fourth Wing, Iron Flame and Onyx Storm make up the three-book series so far, and Onyx Storm ended on a cliffhanger that left readers waiting for what comes next. Fourth Wing alone has sold more than 2.3 million copies, while the series has moved more than 12 million copies combined and is described as the fastest-selling fantasy series of the 21st century.
Yarros has not yet given the fourth book a title, a plot or a release date, which only sharpens the suspense around what she is building. She has said readers can expect to learn more about Violet’s ability to dream walk, her second signet or power, and that the next book will evolve with her understanding. The central dynamic between Violet Sorrengail and Xaden Riorson is part of what has kept the series in constant conversation online, especially on BookTok.
That online attention has helped fuel the series’ rise, and Yarros has embraced it even as she says social media can be overwhelming. In 2025, she said BookTok was “amazing because it’s putting the power back in the readers’ hands,” and described seeing Fourth Wing picked up by influencers as one of the most surreal experiences of her life. She also joked that if readers are more worried about the series’ sex scenes than its violence, that is a strange priority: “there’s murder. There’s a lot of murder.”
For now, the only certainty is that Rebecca Yarros is writing again, and the next Empyrean book is headed toward a harder turn than the last one. The question is no longer whether the series will keep going. It is who, exactly, will not make it through it.
