Blaze: several explicit scenes2 sex scenes, 4 kissing only ยท Common Sense Media 17+
Heat our rating
4/5 Blaze
Age our rating
18+ Common Sense Media: 17+
Sex scenes
2 chapters plus 4 kissing chapters
Published
21 Jan 2025 Entangled Publishing / Red Tower Books
Scene chapters
Six chapters of Onyx Storm get named on spicy-chapter lists: 3, 12, 18, 25, 48 and 49. Only two of them, 25 and 49, are sex scenes. The other four are kissing and make-outs that Xaden cuts short, which matters if you are skipping, rereading or deciding for a teenager.
Ch.3Kissing, p. 31-34
Ch.12Kissing, p. 99-100
Ch.18Kissing, p. 158-159
Ch.25Sex scene, p. 213-218
Ch.48Kissing, p. 403-409
Ch.49Sex scene, p. 410-413
Page numbers from TV Insider. Sources: The Mary Sue, TV Insider, Swooon. What happens in each
Also on the page
war and hand-to-hand combat, intense violence, gore and brutal injuries, murder and death, animal death, grief, poisoning and burning, graphic language, explicit sexual content.
Why Blaze
Several explicit scenes.
Two chapters, 25 and 49, have explicit open-door sex.
Why 18+
18+ from us; Common Sense Media says 17+.
The publisher prints no age; it files the series under its Red Tower Books imprint and tags Fourth Wing as new adult.
The six chapters, and which two are sex scenes
Both editorial lists we use name the same six chapters. The Mary Sue says what happens in each; TV Insider adds page ranges. The page range covers the scene itself, so you can skip a few pages instead of a whole chapter.
Chapter
What it is
Pages
What happens
Source
Ch. 3
Kissing, no sex
pp. 31-34
A make-out that is heading toward sex until Xaden stops himself. TV Insider calls it brief but a little graphic; The Mary Sue rates it mild next to the other Empyrean scenes.
Counted by pages, the explicit material is small: chapters 25 and 49 together run 10 pages on TV Insider's ranges (213 to 218 and 410 to 413). Add the four lighter chapters and the total is 25 pages.
If your list says chapter 11 or 24
If a list you found gives chapter 11 or chapter 24, it is not pointing at a separate scene. The kiss filed under chapter 12 starts at the end of chapter 11, and the build-up to the chapter 25 scene starts in chapter 24. The Mary Sue files each one under the later chapter and notes where it begins, and we count them the same way.
The page ranges come from TV Insider, which does not say which printing it used. In a paperback, a special edition or an ebook, go by the chapter number rather than the page.
How the romance runs in book three
In Fourth Wing the first chapter on The Mary Sue's list is a kiss in chapter 22, and Iron Flame's first scene is in chapter 12. Onyx Storm starts at chapter 3, as TV Insider points out. The difference this time is that the couple keeps stopping. Xaden does not trust himself not to turn venin if he lets go, so chapters 3, 12 and 18 all end at kissing, and The Mary Sue tracks Violet's frustration growing across them.
The Mary Sue's reviewer called the book relatively mild next to Iron Flame, and the chapter breakdown backs that up. Both books have six chapters on its lists, but Iron Flame has three full sex scenes (27, 37 and 48) and Onyx Storm has two. If you are reading for the romance, the payoff comes at chapter 25, a little over a third of the way in, and again near the three-quarter mark at chapter 49.
What the publisher's content note lists
Entangled's record for Onyx Storm carries a longer note than the one on the author's site or the one for Fourth Wing. We grouped it below; it is closed by default because some items hint at plot.
Compared with the Fourth Wing note, the new entries are gore, murder, animal death, injury rehabilitation, grief and burning. That difference is the main reason our age suggestion for this book sits a year above Fourth Wing's, more than the sex scenes do.
18+ here, 17+ at Common Sense Media
Our number is the highest of the three because we weigh the violence in the content note as well as the scenes. Common Sense Media's 17+ is close; the 16 to 18 range is what its listing shows as the publisher's recommended age, and the publisher's own record prints no age at all.
For a 16 or 17 year old who has already read Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, the jump to this book is in violence, not in sex. Chapters 25 and 49 are the only two places a parent skimming ahead needs to look.
Thirteen cadets on Threshing Day, the trial where would-be riders try to bond a dragon. The publisher says it can work as an introduction but is best read after Onyx Storm because of spoilers. Its record carries no content note. Source: Entangled Publishing, Threshing Day book record.
Reading order is publication order: Fourth Wing, Iron Flame, Onyx Storm, then Threshing Day. The author's Bonus Content page also offers Fourth Wing bonus chapters 9, 16 and 27; they are extras, not a book in the order.
Release date checked against the publisher's own record on 1 November 2026.
Two more questions readers search
How many chapters are in Onyx Storm?
Reader chapter summaries count 66 numbered chapters after an unnumbered prologue. We have not checked that against a printed copy yet, so it stays in the still-being-checked box below. On that count the two sex scenes fall about 38% and 74% of the way through the book.
Is there a release date for Empyrean book 4?
Not on either official site when we checked on 1 November 2026. The publisher's reading order still stops at Onyx Storm, and the author's Coming Soon page shows Peculiar Stars (17 November 2026), a slow-burn romance with new leads, Callista and Dominic, plus a Fourth Wing graphic novel in April 2027. The Mary Sue reported in March 2024 that the author had confirmed five books in the series. Threshing Day, out 29 September 2026, is a story collection, not book 4.
The same couple with more on the page: three full sex scenes (27, 37 and 48) against two here, plus three kissing chapters, spread from chapter 12 to chapter 60.
Adult fae romance at the same heat, with Common Sense Media at 18+. Its scene chapters are not confirmed by an editorial source yet, so its page shows them as unverified.
