Onyx Storm Spicy Chapters: Every Steamy Scene, Chapter by Chapter (2026)
Onyx Storm spicy chapters work differently from the first two Empyrean books. Violet and Xaden start this one as an established couple, so there’s no slow burn to wait out. Instead Rebecca Yarros spends most of the book keeping them apart for reasons that have nothing to do with wanting, and the heat comes in short, interrupted bursts. Our verdict on the five-chili scale: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ open door. Two full on-page scenes, one near-miss early on and a string of kisses in between, spread across eight chapters. It’s for readers who came for the dragons and the war and want the romance as a payoff rather than the main course. Why now: Onyx Storm is still the newest Empyrean book, the fourth has no confirmed title or date yet, Prime Video is developing the Fourth Wing series and Yarros’s new contemporary, Peculiar Stars, arrives November 17, 2026. Plenty of readers are rereading the series while they wait, and this is the chapter map, spoiler-light.
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Is Onyx Storm Spicy?
Moderately. Onyx Storm has two explicit, open-door scenes (chapters 25 and 49) and a run of kisses and almost-scenes that keep getting cut off, which is the point: Xaden has reasons to hold back, and the book makes you feel every one of them. The Literary Lifestyle rates it 3 out of 5, the same as Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, and The Mary Sue calls the spice relatively mild compared with Iron Flame. We agree with both. 18+, and the romance takes up a small share of a long war novel.
Onyx Storm Spicy Chapters List
Every chapter below appears in at least three of the four chapter guides we checked (The Literary Lifestyle, The Mary Sue, Swooon and Bookish Goblin). Where a scene starts at the end of one chapter and carries into the next, we’ve listed both.
- Chapter 3: the first heated moment. Violet and Xaden reunite and a make-out session nearly turns into more before Xaden pulls back. Brief and hot, and it sets the frustration that runs through the whole book. Heavy kissing that stops short.
- Chapters 11 and 12: a kiss. Chapter 11 ends on a cliffhanger kiss and Chapter 12 picks it up, then they talk about why it can’t go further. Kiss only.
- Chapter 18: jealousy and a kiss. Xaden’s jealousy flares, the flirting gets heated and they kiss again, with nothing more. Swooon calls it the slow burn after the slow burn. Kiss only.
- Chapters 24 and 25: the first full scene. Another sudden kiss closes Chapter 24, and Chapter 25 finally gives them the night they’ve been circling, before it’s interrupted. Explicit and on the page. Full on-page scene.
- Chapter 48: the lead-in. Kissing, undressing, touching and flirtatious talk that sets up the next chapter. Mild on its own, but don’t stop here.
- Chapter 49: the hottest scene in the book. A full chapter of open-door intimacy, short but explicit, placed right before the plot turns. Every guide we checked lists 48 and 49 together, and Bookish Goblin rates them the hottest in Onyx Storm. Full on-page scene.
Bookish Goblin also marks a brief romantic moment in Chapter 10, but no other guide flags it, so we’ve left it off the list. Nothing spicy happens after Chapter 49.
Skipping or skimming? Only chapters 25 and 49 go past kissing, and Chapter 3 is the one near-miss worth knowing about if you’re listening on audio with someone in the room. Everything else on the list is kisses and conversation. If you’re rereading for the heat before book four, chapters 24 to 25 and 48 to 49 are the two stretches to bookmark; read each pair together, because the first chapter of each pair is the setup and the second is the payoff.
Why Onyx Storm Feels Less Spicy Than Iron Flame
On paper the two books sit at the same rating. On the page, Iron Flame gives Violet and Xaden more freedom: the shower scene, the morning-after chapter and the throne scene all land without much in the way. Onyx Storm puts a reason between them in almost every romantic chapter, so four of its eight spicy chapters end with a kiss and a step back. If you’re reading for the relationship, that tension is the story. If you’re reading for the heat, the book asks for patience twice, once to Chapter 25 and once to Chapter 49.
The upside is that both full scenes carry real weight. They’re placed at turning points, they’re written from inside a relationship that has already survived two books, and they read as earned rather than inserted. If the first two books’ scenes were about wanting, these are about holding on.
Content Warnings
- War, battle violence and on-page deaths
- Grief and loss
- A heroine living with chronic illness and pain
- A partner struggling with a power that may be changing him
- Explicit sexual content (two full scenes), 18+
How Spicy Is Onyx Storm Compared To…
- Fourth Wing (🌶️🌶️🌶️): the same number of full scenes, two, but Fourth Wing makes you wait 30 chapters for the first one. Our Fourth Wing spicy chapters guide has the full map.
- Iron Flame (🌶️🌶️🌶️): the spiciest Empyrean book so far, with more scenes and fewer interruptions, including the shower scene in Chapter 27 and the throne scene in Chapter 48.
- A Court of Mist and Fury (🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️): a full chili hotter, with more scenes and more detail. Our ACOTAR spicy chapters guide covers Chapter 55 and the rest.
- Quicksilver (🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️): Callie Hart’s dark romantasy runs hotter and filthier, if what you wanted from Onyx Storm was less restraint.
- Icebreaker and Twisted Love (🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️): the BookTok contemporaries most romantasy readers cross over to are both hotter and far more frequent than anything in the Empyrean.
Our romance spice levels guide explains the chili scale used above.
Read the Empyrean Series in Order
Onyx Storm is the third book of one continuous story, and it won’t make sense out of order: Fourth Wing (2023), Iron Flame (2023), then Onyx Storm (2025). A fourth book is on the way, but Yarros and her publisher hadn’t announced a title or date at the time of writing. Our Rebecca Yarros books in order guide covers the full Empyrean and her contemporaries, and our list of books like Onyx Storm picks up where the cliffhanger leaves you.
If You Wanted It Hotter: A Fractal Enigma Bonus Scene
The part of Onyx Storm that hurts is a man afraid of what’s inside him, holding back from the woman he loves. Rowan Black built a whole saga on that fear and then let it break, on the page, more than once. And there’s a bonus chapter that was too spicy for Amazon.
The Demon’s Tithe — Rowan Black
They poured demon blood into Kaelen Ashward’s open wounds and called it a gift. He’s been trying to give it back ever since. A demon-blooded hunter with silver scars tracing his veins and senses that burn, Kaelen has a reputation that makes villagers bar their doors before he reaches them. A contract at Castle Voss puts him beside Lady Seraphine Voss, whose secrets go back centuries, and in the middle of a web of supernatural politics and ancient hunger. Enemies to lovers, a hero who falls first and a power he doesn’t trust himself with: the Xaden problem, with the door open.
The bonus chapter: “The Third Feeding” takes place between Chapters 15 and 16, during Kaelen’s final nights at Castle Voss, and it’s the scene the main book only lets you imagine. It’s too spicy for Amazon, so it lives only here. Finish the saga first, then read The Demon’s Tithe bonus chapter.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Monster Hunter, Morally Grey Hero, Enemies to Lovers, Forced Proximity, Touch Starved, Power Exchange, He Falls First, Obsessive Love, Demon Blood
Start reading The Demon’s Tithe → (free with Kindle Unlimited)
Hoard of the Dragon — Draven Moore
If the dragons are what you’ll miss most until book four, try a dragon who is the love interest. Master thief Elara Vance breaks into a Manhattan vault for a legendary ruby to save her dying sister and wakes Valerius, the last of the Dragon Lords, after five hundred years asleep beneath the city. By ancient law her life is forfeit. He’d rather keep her. MF fated mates with all the possessiveness Tairn would approve of, book one of the Dragon’s Sanctuary series and a complete story with a happily ever after.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Fated Mates, Dragon Shifter, Knotting, Breeding Kink, Captive Romance, Size Difference
Start reading Hoard of the Dragon → (free with Kindle Unlimited)
Bite the Hand That Feeds You — Isla Wilde
For readers who loved Violet’s daggers and the knife’s edge of trusting someone dangerous. Iris Morcant takes a blood-companion contract at the black-stone estate of Countess Vespera Saint-Clair with a silver blade hidden against her ribs and orders to kill the three-century-old vampire before the next full moon. Then Vespera refuses to feed without permission, uncovers the plot and hands Iris the blade back. An FF gothic romance about choosing between the mission you were raised for and the woman you were sent to destroy.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Vampire/Courtesan, Hidden Assassin, Gothic Age Gap, Enemies to Lovers, Forced Proximity, Touch Starved
Start reading Bite the Hand That Feeds You →
FAQ: Onyx Storm Spicy Chapters
What chapter is the spicy scene in Onyx Storm?
Chapter 25 is the first full scene (it starts with a kiss at the end of Chapter 24), and Chapter 49 is the second and hottest, with Chapter 48 as the lead-in.
How many spicy scenes are in Onyx Storm?
Two full on-page scenes, plus an interrupted make-out in Chapter 3 and kisses in chapters 11 to 12 and 18. That’s eight chapters with kissing or more in a very long book.
Is Onyx Storm appropriate for teens?
No. Like the rest of the Empyrean, it’s adult fantasy for readers 18 and over, with explicit sex scenes, graphic war violence and on-page deaths.
Is the next Empyrean book spicier?
There’s no way to know yet: book four has no confirmed title or release date. Within the series so far, Iron Flame is the spiciest, Onyx Storm the most restrained and Fourth Wing the slowest to get there.
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