(This is the page for the book titled "The Dark Secret." You may be looking for the The Dark Secret (graphic novel)|graphic novel instead.)
'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 follows The Hidden Kingdom and precedes 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 of SandWing Succession|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
island|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.

## 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.

## 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.

## Plot

### Prologue

The prologue showed Reed and his siblings in a battle between the
IceWings and the MudWings, where Marsh became terrified after he had just seen his sister, Crane, die in front of him during
their first battle. They fought the IceWings for a while, but were then
ordered to retreat. Reed and his siblings fled into the forest, where
the IceWings were unable to follow. After the battle was over, Umber
claimed to have noticed a Human settlements|scavenger den the IceWings
were after. Reed took note but did not ponder on it anymore. He then
thought about joining the Talons of Peace with his siblings. The
prologue ended with him not wanting to lose anyone else in the war,
having already lost their sister.

### 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 and was chasing a boar, the NightWings came up out of the
tunnel and abducted him. He could not seem to remember anything else.
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. They asked Starflight what he knew, and Morrowseer threatened
to kill him if he did not say anything, so he said that he thought they
were going to 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, with
Greatness saying, "You brought us a viper disguised as a simple garden
snake." The then guards threw him in the lava.

When he tried to come up, the guards pushed him down. Deathbringer
thanked the queen for choosing not to kill him, but Greatness ordered
him to the dungeon, saying, "The queen will figure out what to do with
you later."

Morrowseer took Starflight to an island to hunt, and when Starflight saw
how the NightWings hunt, he was disgusted and tried to talk his way out
of eating the giant albatross Morrowseer had killed. After listening to
Starflight rant on and on about the strange hunting habits of
NightWings, Morrowseer confirmed who his father is. Morrowseer took
Starflight to the labs, but on the way, they met Fatespeaker. Morrowseer
reluctantly agreed to take her to the labs if she promised to be quiet,
and she happily obeyed. When they met Mastermind, Morrowseer went away,
being bored with science, leaving him and Fatespeaker with Mastermind.

At first, when Starflight met his father, Mastermind, he was filled with
elation at the prospect of having such a smart father, but when he was
given a tour by Mastermind around the labs, he was sickened by the fact
that his father was experimenting and torturing the abducted RainWings
without even showing that he cared. He said that they were doing it for
"science" because he did not want his son to know the real reason. When
Mastermind showed him a RainWing test subject — which turned out to be
Orchid — Starflight told her Mangrove was still looking for her. At
this, her scales turned pink, showing her joy. Mastermind marveled at
this, wondering why she turned pink. Fatespeaker gave Starflight a look
that said, "We'll be talking about this later."

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 Kingdom|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. Part One ended with Starflight thinking, "I've
figured out the NightWings' secret plan. But now … what do I do about
it?"

### Part Two: The Queen's Secret

Starflight was brought to meet the Talons of Peace#The False
Dragonets|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 she let him through, to
Starflight's surprise. While waiting there, the other dragonets ran into
the NightWing guard, who freaked out, not knowing that the alternate
dragonets of destiny were on the island. When Flame, the false SkyWing
dragonet of destiny, shouted, "We're trying to kill a NightWing
dragonet! Did you see where he went?" The guard then screamed, "THEY'RE
HERE TO KILL OUR DRAGONETS!" and slammed a gong on Flame's head. After
a while, Fatespeaker found him 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 the real dragonets 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. The dragonets failed, and some NightWings, who were following
them, burst in and killed all the SkyWings. Squid then said he did not
want to do it anymore, and Morrowseer furiously sent him away, saying he
hoped Squid would die, devastating Fatespeaker. Morrowseer then took
everyone back to the volcano island. Starflight and the rest of the
dragonets then took a long, deserved sleep.

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, the
NightWing who helped Glory escape the Night Kingdom. 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 remember that he was his own dragon, and he does not have
to do everything he was told.

Fatespeaker and Starflight left so that they had time 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 says and for them to leave her. The dragonets had failed to change
anything.

That night, Starflight took out the dreamvisitor again and successfully
contacted Glory. He told her that the NightWings were attacking, and he
was captured and did not betray them. He then woke up after talking with
Glory and realized the blankets had changed, 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 Plants#Medicinal
plants|brightsting cactus, but before he could, NightWings came to take
Mastermind to the council. There, Starflight learned that the NightWings
would 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, but he did not know how. Fatespeaker
agreed that they should help and came up with the plan to get to the
rainforest.

Using Flame's scratch as an excuse, they tricked the guards into letting
them into the rainforest, claiming that they would find the venom's
antidote. He told the guards that the queen had chosen him as he was the
only NightWing the RainWings trusted. The guards decided to let them in.
Immediately after they came in, RainWings pinned them down, as ordered
by Tsunami. Starflight and Tsunami spotted each other, and Tsunami
explained a bit of their situation and brought them to Glory, Sunny, and
Clay. Fatespeaker asked who Sunny is, and soon after, they found that
they were quite alike. They planned how they would do the battle and
decide they would go in within a few hours. Sunny suggested a new way of
fighting for RainWings: tranquilizer darts. Soon, all of the RainWings
were armed with their 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 and Mangrove. Glory told Liana
and Grandeur how to release the RainWings with the spear. They then went
to speak to Queen Battlewinner. As they were entering her chamber,
Starflight noticed the ground shaking and realized the volcano would
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. Queen Battlewinner shrieked in rage and attempted to attack
them, but because she jumped out of her lava, the ice froze her insides
and killed her in a matter of seconds.

They then rushed to free Splendor and Deathbringer. During this period,
the volcano was shaking violently. They released Splendor and
Deathbringer and told the NightWings their plan. Almost all the dragons
entered the rainforest, saying "Queen Glory" except for Morrowseer. As
they were about to leave, Morrowseer told them the The Dragonet Prophecy (prophecy)|prophecy was false and made up, as part of an elaborate plan
he and Battlewinner 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 then
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, and Fatespeaker
came up to him (he was unsure whether it was Fatespeaker or Sunny at
first), and he was then jabbed in the neck by a sleeping dart and was
knocked unconscious.

### Epilogue

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

Blister was with Nautilus and Squid, who was found by 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. She realized that the dragonets may be the
reason for his disappearance and vowed to kill them.

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

## Mistakes

  - On the English cover, Starflight's tongue is red,[1] although
    NightWings are said to have black tongues.[2]
  - On the English cover, Starflight lacks small silver scales on his
    neck plates,[3] even though it is a typical NightWing trait.[4]
  - On some book[5] and audiobook covers,[6] one of the NightWings
    flying in the upper left corner is missing its head.   - In Starflight's thoughts, The Dragonet Prophecy (prophecy)|the
    dragonet prophecy is capitalized, despite it being lowercase in
    other books.
  - Morrowseer refers to a Unnamed characters#SkyWings|group of SkyWing
    guards as a handful instead of a talonful.
  - Cacti is misspelled as cactI.
  - When Starflight finds the dreamvisitor, it is mentioned that it was
    made by a SandWing animus, even though it was a NightWing animus,
    Darkstalker.

## 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
  - 'Korean:' 불의 날개와 어둠의 비밀 (January 2022)