‘Fourth Wing’ Author Rebecca Yarros Is ‘Locked Away’ Writing 3rd Book — and Playing Taylor Swift

Release the dragons — Fourth Wing author Rebecca Yarros is working hard on the next installment of her beloved series.

Yarros, 43, took to her Instagram Story on Thursday, May 30, to reveal that she’s currently “locked away” in a hotel writing Onyx Storm, the follow-up to Fourth Wing and Iron Flame. The author included a screenshot of the song she was listening to as she delved back into Violet’s world, which featured none other than Taylor Swift’s “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince.”

A self-declared Swiftie, Yarros previously shared that “Miss Americana” helped serve as an inspiration while she was working on the first installment of the series. "I wrote a lot of Fourth Wing to ‘Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince’ because I think it has a lot of underlying political themes in that song that kind of go with Navarre,” she told Popverse in November 2023. “So any Taylor Swift songs are mostly I would say representative of Xaden and Violet.”

Yarros also noted that she listened to “I Know Places” from Swift’s album 1989 while writing Iron Flame. In an Instagram post shared last year, she dove further into the music of Fourth Wing, sharing a playlist of songs fans could listen to that fit into the world — including Halsey’s “Experiment on Me” and “My Blood” by Ellie Goulding.

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When it comes to the plot of Onyx Storm, very little is known, though Yarros has offered a few teases of what’s to come. While appearing on Good Morning America in March, she shared that the book — which will be released January 21, 2025 — explores “politics, new adventures, old enemies, and, of course, dragons.”

She added, “I can’t wait to share more details with you later.”

Yarros also shared some insight into Violet’s journey while speaking to Variety, noting that readers may know way more about the character’s second signet than they think.

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“I will tell you that that's the third book — but every single hint you would need to know what her second signet is is in Iron Flame,” she explained. “It’s manifested. Read it again and then call me.”

If the numbers from her previous two books are any indication, Yarros has another romantasy hit on her hands. Iron Flame sold approximately 585,000 hardcovers in its first week alone, and Fourth Wing, which sold 2 million books and counting, stayed on the New York Times’ bestsellers list for more than six months.