It comes as no surprise that the ending of Onyx Storm rattled us all. Don’t get me wrong, I love the series, but after waiting more than a year to get some answers about Xaden, things are only getting worse. And no doubt, they will get even darker (AND WORSE) in Book 4.
How are we supposed to breathe? But what’s even more stressful is that Xaden is gone. And I honestly have no doubt that he’s, like… gone gone! He wants to protect Violet from himself.
Let’s recap. Xaden has turned venin. Xaden has a weird bond going on with his Sage. Now that he’s progressed to the next step (Asim), he can no longer ignore the call of the Sage. They are very much connected now. Ugh, horrid.
To protect Violet and Tairn, the most logical thing here is to break the bond between himself and Violet and disappear. But something tells me Sgaeyl will help. And so, she might have broken the bond with Tairn and taken Xaden away.
We’re heartbroken. This is horrible. What’s even more tragic is that Violet is now a Duchess, married to an Asim, no less. We know that title outranks rank itself and that being a duke/duchess is the second most powerful title in Navarre. Violet only answers to the King now. That was a handy piece of strategy Xaden did there.
There’s a lot on Violet’s shoulders all of a sudden. Not to mention, I think her brother just turned venin.
But all is not lost. There is a way for Violet to find Xaden. And she will. Because he told her exactly how to. Will Violet need to find Xaden to kill him? That’s probable… she will be the death of him after all. Unless there’s another meaning to this quote that we haven’t quite uncovered yet.
“Don’t look for me. It’s yours now.”
We know what it means—Tyrrendor. Don’t look for me is literal here. But Violet won’t listen. She will go looking for him.
How will Violet find Xaden
My theory is that if he’s smart, Xaden will be on a non-magical island. However, that’s clearly not possible, given that his very dragon needs magic to not be in pain. Maybe he’s hiding at the Bay of Malek? I have many questions, but currently, not enough re-reads to be able to give you the answers.
Either way, it’s fair to assume that he cannot ignore Berwyn anymore and that he’s somewhere with Berwyn right now. Given how Berwyn wanted to kill Sgaeyl, though, something tells me she’s not around him if Xaden is with Berwyn.
If he’s trying to resist the Sage’s call and he’s still with Sgaeyl, ugh—where could they be hiding? No clue.
To find Xaden, Violet has three incredibly powerful tools.
She has Garrick, who can walk her anywhere she needs to go. Although, I assume there needs to be magic for Garrick to be able to step there.
She has a broken compass, which—let’s face it—we all know isn’t broken.
“Extending his hand silently, he offers me a black compass on a dark chain. I glance down as I take it and notice that the needle doesn’t point anywhere near north. It’s broken.”
Nope, love, that compass is anything but broken. It shouldn’t point near north. It should point… near Xaden.
“Use it wisely,” he replies, his eyes blatantly mocking me as he bows.
She just needs to learn about it from one of her books and then learn how to use it wisely. She’ll be grateful, you wait and see.
And the final, probably most important tool at her disposal, is Xaden’s previous lesson. Read this:
“I can wield from anything that casts a shadow, but no one knows the strongest threads are always my own. If you can sort through them, feel their difference, you’ll be able to track where I am in the darkness.”
“You have to learn the difference for both our sakes.” […] “Only you.”
There might not be a bond. Either way, she needs to learn how to follow his shadows—they will lead her to him.
“Because you’re the only one capable of killing me.”
Now that little sentence carries a lot more weight. She needs to find him so she can kill him with her lightning strike.
Will Violet have to kill Xaden?
You are not going to like this. It is highly possible that Violet may have to kill Xaden in the upcoming books. Several key pieces of foreshadowing in Iron Flame and Onyx Storm suggest that Xaden is on a dark path—one that could force Violet to make an impossible choice.
Ridoc explicitly states that when Xaden “progresses and turns fully,” someone with the wrong rank will realize what he’s become, and they’ll have to kill him. Xaden himself acknowledges this, saying, “I’m making sure Violet’s capable of killing me when the time comes. If it’s between her and me, I choose her. Kill the other guy I become.”
There’s discussion about an old Unnbrish priestess who warned that if Violet (or someone connected to her) made the wrong choices, they would “reach for unspeakable power and turn dark.” Xaden later confirms: “It’s not Violet. It’s me.”
And finally, it’s always been there:
“You’re going to be the death of me.”
“So you keep saying.” I try not to think about the other ways that statement can be interpreted.”
Violet may be the only one with the power to stop him—either by force or by finding a way to save him from himself (love is all we need theory). Will Rebecca Yarros lean into the tragedy, or will she subvert expectations and give them a way out?
I said it before, but I feel like the Gods are getting more and more involved here. We will learn about them and their powers very soon. I wonder if Violet is preferred by the Gods somehow, seeing as she’s been touched by one at the very least. Malek seems to listen to her. What if…she makes a deal with the Gods, to kill Xaden, kill the other guy he becomes, only for him to be brought back? Seeing how Mrs Yarros likes to roast us for fun, I have this feeling that the cliffhanger on Book 4 will literally be Violet killing Xaden.
What do you think? Will Violet find Xaden to save him? Or to kill him?
Leave a Reply