The Dark Secret (book)

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The Dark Secret is the fourth book of the New York Times bestselling series Wings of Fire, and also the fourth book in the first arc. The main protagonist is Starflight. It was officially released on October 29th, 2013.

The Dark Secret is preceded by The Hidden Kingdom and is followed by The Brightest Night.

Summary

In the shadows, trouble is brewing. . . .

The mysterious NightWings keep everything hidden, from their home and their queen to their allegiance in the war. Now they've kidnapped their own dragonet of destiny, and Starflight is finally meeting the rest of his tribe — whether he wants to or not.

The NightWings have also kidnapped several innocent RainWings, now trapped in the dark, barren, miserable place that is the NightWing Kingdom. Starflight wants to help the RainWings, but he's busy saving his own scales and trying to find a way back to his friends. The fate of two kingdoms rests in his talons, and with no one to save him, Starflight will have to find a way to be brave ... before it's too late.

Quote on back of hardcover

Suddenly, one of the nearest dragons snapped, "Just tell us if they're planning an attack!"

"Yes," Starflight blurted. "I mean — I think so."

This met with such an uproar that Starflight had to sit down and cover his head with his wings. He'd said the worst possible thing. He'd made everything worse for Glory and the RainWings, and he couldn't even bring himself to speak up and try that famous "diplomacy" he'd always thought was a good idea.

They wouldn't listen to me anyway, he told himself, but he didn't know if that was true. He wasn't brave enough to find out.

Dedication

For Jonah and Elliot's first tribe: Willamina and Wyatt, Ashwin and Syrus, Leo and Maya, Amelie, Charlie, Adam, Stella, Rady and Lyla, Sylvie and Penelope, Calvin, Evie and Joshua, and Noah and Grace.

Plot

Prologue

The prologue opened with Reed and his siblings witnessing a surprise attack by a group of IceWings on the SandWings in their patrol, sixteen days after losing their sister Crane in a battle. Despite Marsh's terror, Reed ordered his siblings to help the SandWings in battle. After a fight with the IceWings, the SandWing general ordered a retreat, and Reed and his siblings fled into the forest where the IceWings were unable to follow. The siblings voiced their hatred of the war and Sora pronounced that Clay would end it soon. Reed wondered privately if Clay would have been a better BigWings for the group, and asked his siblings for their opinions on joining the Talons of Peace. After agreeing to hold off the decision, they speculated on why the IceWings had attacked them in the first place. Umber claimed to have noticed a scavenger den the IceWings may have been after.

Part One: The Secret Plan

The book began with Starflight unconscious and worrying where Sunny was, before replaying what had happened beforehand. He remembered that when Clay left to chase a boar, the NightWings came out of the tunnel and abducted him, but could not remember anything beyond that. Starflight's half-sister, Fierceteeth, awoke him by dumping salt water onto him. He was introduced to all of the NightWing dragonets, however the introduction was cut short when Morrowseer stormed into the room, demanding that Starflight join him at the council to see the queen. Starflight nervously came along.

At the council, Starflight watched as they debated about attacking the RainWings, and noticed that the queen remained behind a screen throughout the conversation, speaking through her daughter. The NightWings asked Starflight what he knew about the RainWings' plans. When Morrowseer threatened to kill him if he did not say anything, he responded that he thought they might be planning an attack. Vengeance then brought Deathbringer into the council room, claiming he had betrayed the tribe and helped Glory and Clay escape. Vengeance was sentenced to death because he had endangered the tribe for bringing Glory to the home of the NightWings. The guards threw him in the lava and pushed him back down when he tried to escape. Deathbringer thanked the queen for choosing not to kill him, but Greatness ordered him to the dungeon.

Morrowseer took Starflight to a forest-covered part of the island to hunt, revealing a hidden giant albatross with an infected bite. Starflight was disgusted and tried to talk his way out of eating the wing Morrowseer offered him. After listening to Starflight speculate about the strange hunting habits of NightWings, Morrowseer confirmed who his father was. Morrowseer took Starflight to the labs, but on the way, they met with an enthusiastic Fatespeaker. Morrowseer reluctantly agreed to take her to the labs if she promised to be quiet, and she happily agreed.

Starflight's father turned out to be the NightWing scientist, Mastermind, who was delighted by the news that he had a son. He and Starflight bonded quickly over their shared interest in science, however, Mastermind also revealed that he was behind the experimentation on the kidnapped RainWings, at which point both Starflight and Fatespeaker felt uncomfortable. Mastermind showed them a RainWing test subject, who turned out to be Orchid. When Starflight told her Mangrove was still looking for her, her scales turned pink, showing her joy. Mastermind marveled at this, wondering why it had happened, and Fatespeaker covered for Starflight by saying that Orchid might have been grateful for the water they brought her.

Morrowseer then came back, saying that Starflight must be introduced to the "others." However, Starflight was not paying attention but instead pondering why the NightWings would be abducting the RainWings. The puzzle pieces clicked inside Starflight's mind, and he figured out the plan was to take the rainforest from the RainWings and make that the new home of the NightWings. He also figured that the NightWings allied with Blister so that she and her army could help them take the territory, which explained the purpose of the two animus enchanted tunnels in the rainforest.

Part Two: The Queen's Secret

Starflight was brought to meet the false dragonets of destiny, and almost immediately afterward, Morrowseer ordered the dragonets to kill him as a test. He ran away and hid in the RainWing prisons, where a guard stopped him. He told her he was there for a "school project," and to Starflight's surprise, she let him through. While waiting there, the other dragonets ran into the NightWing guard, who did not know that the alternate dragonets of destiny were on the island and raised the alarm. When Flame, the false SkyWing dragonet of destiny, shouted that they were there to kill a NightWing dragonet, the guard screamed and slammed a gong on Flame's head. After a while, Fatespeaker found Starflight and brought him back to the cave where the dragonets had been. Morrowseer then took them to the fortress and to the dormitories where Starflight slept.

Fatespeaker woke Starflight up in the night to explore the volcano. They found the old treasury, and Starflight discovered a dreamvisitor. He attempted to contact his friends with it but had to enter Kinkajou's dreams instead since no one else was sleeping. In her dream, he learned that his friends thought he had betrayed them and gone to warn the NightWings of their attack. Starflight then fell asleep, feeling lonelier than he ever had before.

He was woken up by Morrowseer, who brought them to the mainland to try to convince a remote outpost of SkyWings to switch their alliances to Blister. Despite convincing the SkyWings that they were the dragonets of the prophecy, Starflight could not bring himself to endorse Blister. When the SkyWings attempted to capture them, a group of NightWings who had followed them burst in and killed all the SkyWings. Squid said he did not want to be part of the prophecy anymore, and Morrowseer furiously sent him away, saying he hoped Squid would die. This devastated Fatespeaker, but the rest of the group seemed apathetic. Morrowseer led them back to the island.

Fatespeaker woke Starflight up, saying that Flame had just snuck out, and she wanted to follow him. Flame lead the way to the NightWing dungeon, where Flame and Ochre had to stay when the guard caught them trying to kill Starflight. In there, they found Deathbringer. Flame wanted to know how to become an assassin but stormed back to bed after Deathbringer told him not to get too attached to his target — thinking of Glory — and to remember that he was his own dragon and did not have to do everything he was told.

Fatespeaker and Starflight left to find Queen Battlewinner. They found her in a secret room behind a map. When nobody was inside, Starflight thought there might have been no queen after all, but a dragon rose from a cauldron of lava in the middle of the room. They found out she was forced to stay in the cauldron because an IceWing shot their frostbreath straight down her throat. Since the lava and ice canceled each other out, if she left the lava, the ice would finish its work and kill her. Both NightWing dragonets tried to convince her that what Morrowseer was doing was too cruel, but the queen told them to do as he said and leave her alone.

That night, Starflight took out the dreamvisitor again and successfully contacted Glory. He told her that the NightWings were attacking, and that he had been he captured and did not betray them. When he woke up, he realized the blankets had been rearranged and the dreamvisitor was exposed.

The next day Morrowseer instructed them to do battle training. While attempting to kill Fatespeaker, Viper fell into the lava but managed to accidentally scratch Flame across the face with her venomous tail. Morrowseer tried to save Flame and left Viper for dead. While Morrowseer took Flame back to the fortress to find healers, Starflight discovered that none of the alternate dragonets were born on the brightest night. Fatespeaker and Starflight returned to the fortress to rest.

Before Starflight could get any sleep, Mastermind told him to walk with him to their library to find something on how to cure SandWing venom for Flame. Starflight decided to tell him about the brightsting cactus, but before he could, NightWings came to take Mastermind to the council. Starflight followed him, and heard Battlewinner order the NightWings to attack the RainWings at midnight that night.

Part Three: The Truth

Frantically trying to find the dreamvisitor to warn Glory, Starflight discovered it was missing. He woke up Fatespeaker and told her that they needed to help the RainWings. Using Flame's scratch as an excuse, they tricked the guards into letting them into the rainforest, claiming that they had been ordered to find the venom's antidote. Starflight told the guards that the queen had chosen him as he was the only NightWing the RainWings trusted, and after some improvisation, the guards decided to let them in. In the rainforest, they were pinned down by Mango, but Starflight and Tsunami spotted each other. Tsunami brought them to Glory, Sunny, and Clay, where Fatespeaker and Sunny bonded over their many similarities. During a strategy meeting, Glory decided the RainWings would have the best chance if they attacked first. Sunny's idea was initially ignored by the group, but Clay told them her suggestion that the RainWings be armed with tranquilizer darts.

Starflight believed he might die in the fight, so he confessed to Sunny that he loved her. She was surprised, and told him to kick some NightWings for her. The army of RainWings then went through the tunnel. Glory freed Orchid first, reuniting her with Mangrove, and told Liana and Grandeur how to release the RainWings with the spear. She and Starflight then went to speak to Queen Battlewinner. As they were entering her chamber, Starflight noticed the ground shaking and realized the volcano would soon erupt. Glory demanded that Battlewinner stop the attack, but the NightWing queen refused. Starflight came up with the idea for letting the NightWings come to the rainforest as long as they accepted Glory as their queen. Greatness agreed to this plan, but Queen Battlewinner refused and attempted to attack them. However, when she left the lava, the ice froze her insides and killed her in a matter of seconds.

They rushed to free Splendor and Deathbringer as the volcano shook violently, and after releasing them regrouped with the other dragonets and told the NightWings their plan. Almost all the dragons accepted Glory as their queen and entered the rainforest, but Morrowseer refused. As they were about to leave, Morrowseer told them the prophecy was not true, and had been constructed as part of an elaborate plan he and Battlewinner had orchestrated to take over the rainforest.

When the volcano erupted, the dragons dashed through the tunnel to the rainforest as the explosion consumed Morrowseer and killed him. Starflight felt the blast on his scales and felt a stab of pain through his eyes — the lava had blinded him. Clay shielded Starflight from the lava with his fireproof scales and brought him to the rainforest. Fatespeaker came up to him, although he initially mistook her for Sunny, and he was jabbed in the neck by a sleeping dart and knocked unconscious.

Epilogue

Blaze was outside her fortress with Glacier, telling her about the dragonets. Glacier confirmed that she was only supporting Blaze for the land. Glacier allowed Blaze to go inside and contemplated killing the dragonets if they did not choose Blaze.

Blister was with Nautilus and Squid, who was found near the mountains after Morrowseer had left him to fend for himself. Both Nautilus and Blister wondered about Morrowseer's disappearance and why he sent Blister to a scavenger den. Blister realized that the dragonets might have been the reason for his disappearance and vowed to kill them.

Burn was outside her stronghold with her brother Smolder. They were talking about their prisoner, Scarlet, and Burn told him how much of a bore Queen Ruby was as she would not enter battle while her kingdom was in turmoil. Burn then stated she would destroy the prophecy by killing the dragonets.

Special Edition

A special edition of The Dark Secret was released on October 7th, 2025. It includes never-before-seen cover sketches and a Q&A with Tui.

Mistakes

• On the English cover, Starflight's tongue is red, although NightWings are said to have black tongues.
• On the English cover, Starflight lacks small silver scales on his neck plates, even though it is a typical NightWing trait.
• On some book and audiobook covers, one of the NightWings flying in the upper left corner is missing its head.
• In Starflight's thoughts, the dragonet prophecy is capitalized, despite it being lowercase in other books.
• When Starflight finds the dreamvisitor, it is mentioned that it was made by a SandWing animus, even though it was a NightWing animus, Darkstalker.
• Morrowseer refers to a group of SkyWing guards as a handful instead of a talonful.
• In Starflight's thoughts, the word "foot" is used instead of "talon."

Gallery

Click here to see the cover gallery.

International Releases

• Chinese: 火翼飞龙. 盗取龙梦的死亡岛魔石 (July 2015)
• French: Les Royaumes de Feu. L'île au secret (January 2016)
• German: Wings of Fire. Die Insel der Nachtflügler (February 2016)
• Turkish: Ateşten Kanatlar. Karanlık Sır (November 2016)
• Italian: I Regni del Fuoco. L'Oscuro Secreto (June 2017)
• Polish: Skrzydła ognia. Mroczny sekret (August 2017)
• Russian: Драконья сага. Мрачная тайна (September 2017)
• Czech: Ohnivá křídla. Temné tajemství (February 2019)
• Brazilian Portuguese: Asas de Fogo. O segredo sombrio (November 2019)
• Persian: راز شب .بالهای آتشین
• Ukrainian: Крила Вогню. Темний Секрет (June 2021)
• Korean: 불의 날개와 어둠의 비밀 (January 2022)
• Finnish: Tulisiivet. Synkkä salaisuus (May 2022)
• Dutch: Vleugels Van Vuur. Het duistere geheim (March 2023)
• Spanish: Alas De Fuego. El oscuro secreto (September 2023)
• Hungarian: Tűz Szárnyak. A sötét titok (2024)
• Japanese: 闇の 救世主: 夜の翼のスターフライト (July 2025)

References

cs:Temné Tajemství de:Die Insel der Nachtflügler fi:Synkkä salaisuus fr:L'île au secret ko:불의 날개와 어둠의 비밀 nl:Het duistere geheim pl:Mroczny Sekret ru:Мрачная Тайна uk:Темний секрет