(This is the page for the graphic novel adaptation of "The Dark Secret." You may be looking for the The Dark Secret (book)|book instead.)  'The
Dark Secret (graphic novel)' is a comic adaptation of the fourth Wings of Fire book, The Dark Secret (book)|The
Dark Secret. The art is done by Mike Holmes. The book is written from
the point of view of Starflight. It was officially released on December
29th, 2020. The graphic novel was first confirmed to be in the works in
an interview at the Newton Free Library.[1]

## Dedication

For Oscar and Beatrice, two of the most awesome people ever — we feel so
lucky to have you as friends!

— T.T.S.

For Ruby and Gabby, who I hope will always let me know if my art's any
good

— M.H.

## Synopsis

'The #1 New York Times bestselling series Wings of Fire (book
series)|Wings of Fire soars to new heights in the fourth graphic novel
adaptation!'

In the shadows, trouble is brewing…

When Starflight is stolen by his own NightWings|tribe, he hopes to at
least discover some of the long-held NightWing secrets — what magical
powers they really have, who they're allied with in the War of SandWing
Succession|war, and where they've been living all this time.

But the truth about Starflight's tribe is more terrible than he ever
imagined: Not only do the NightWings live in a dark, miserable NightWing
island|place, but they've imprisoned several innocent RainWings there,
too. Stranded and alone, Starflight only wants to get back to his Talons
of Peace#Dragonets of destiny|friends. But the fate of two kingdoms now
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.

## Plot

### Prologue

The prologue shows Reed and his siblings in a battle between the
IceWings and the MudWings, where Marsh becomes terrified after he had just seen his sister Crane die in front of him during their
first battle. 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. 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 Dragon royalty#Queen|queen.
Starflight nervously came along.

At the council, Starflight watched as they debated about attacking the
RainWings. They asked Starflight what he knows, and Morrowseer
threatened to kill him if he did not say anything, so he said that he
thinks they were planning an attack. He witnessed Vengeance's death
because he 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," and so the 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
agreed to take her to the labs if she promised to be quiet, and she
happily agreed. 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 abducting and torturing 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, turning her a
pink color (which means she was happy). Mastermind marveled at this,
wondering why she turned pink. Fatespeaker gave him 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 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 ends 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 false dragonets, 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 SkyWings|SkyWing dragonet of destiny, shouted, "We're trying
to kill a NightWing dragonet! Did you see where he went?" The guard
then screams, "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 Animus
enchantments|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 this 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 is told.

Fatespeaker and Starflight left so that they had time to find
Battlewinner|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 frost breath 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 SandWings|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: Sleeping 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 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 Ruby|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.

## Variation from novel

  - In the graphic novel, Starflight had already been captured by the
    NightWings. The novel briefly depicts Clay leaving Starflight by the
    entrance to the NightWing island before the latter is captured by
    his tribe.
  - In the original book, Starflight runs into a chandelier after
    Fatespeaker informs him she was raised by the Talons of Peace. This
    isn't present in the graphic novel.
  - When Starflight dreams about being back under the mountain in the
    novel, he and Sunny are interrupted by Kestrel and Dune. In the
    graphic novel, only Kestrel interrupts Starflight and Sunny.
  - In the graphic novel, the scavenger dens on the detailed map of
    Pyrrhia are crossed out in red ink. However, the scavenger dens are
    crossed out in green ink in the novel.
  - When Starflight enters Tsunami's dream via the dreamvisitor, Anemone
    is not present, nor does she go insane in Tsunami's dream and attack
    Gill. Instead, Tsunami is the one who kills her father in her
    nightmare.
  - When Starflight and Fatespeaker go through the tunnel with Flame,
    Fatespeaker is not captured and gagged.

## Mistakes

  - Fatespeaker is missing the bracelet pattern on her arm.
  - When Starflight is trying to convince the SkyWings he was the
    NightWing dragonet of the prophecy, he says, "Remember, [Queen
    Scarlet] had me fight scavengers?" However, in the graphic novel
    adaption, the scavenger fight isn't shown — only Starflight and
    Tsunami's "fight" and the IceWings' deaths.
  - Nautilus is missing his black spiral patterns.

## International Releases

  - 'French:' Les Royaumes de Feu en Bande Dessinée. L'Île au Secret
    (June 2021)
  - 'Korean:' 불의 날개와 어둠의 비밀 그래픽 노블 (November 2022)