Volusian was already chanting. I hadn’t been aware that he’d memorized the incantation in my cell, but he knew it word for word. Power radiated out from him as he spoke. Varia let out a strangled cry and pushed forward against the wind I was still using to hold her in place. With more strength than I’d known she had, she sent another blast of that disorientation to Jasmine and me. We lost our balance again, and I dropped the magic. Varia didn’t waste a moment once freed. As soon as she wasn’t fighting my elements, she directed all her strength into banishing Volusian. Doing so meant she had to let up on Jasmine and me again, probably hoping her last attack would delay us from acting in the time it’d take us to recover.

She was right because it took me several moments to get back to my feet and clear my head. As I did, a couple of things happened. Volusian finished his incantation, and although there was no visible indication, I felt the power that had been shielding the objects vanish. Maybe there was some residual protective force left, but it was nothing that couldn’t be broken. The other thing that happened was ...

Varia banished Volusian.

“Be gone, you wretched traitor!” she cried. I felt her magic swell, and the bonds that held Volusian and I together disintegrated. “Go to the Underworld and never return.”

“I shall see you there soon,” said Volusian, undaunted as he began to fade. His gaze turned to me. “I have served you dutifully. Now help me. Destroy her... .”

He said no more because he disintegrated into sparkles, which soon faded into nothingness. Volusian was gone from this world forever.

She’d barely finished that banishing when she unleashed another brain blast at me and Jasmine, even stronger than previous ones. I cried out as that buzzing sound shifted to more of a screech. I felt like my ears would explode. Even through it, I could still hear Varia when she spoke.

“You really think you’ve accomplished anything? Just because your minion took down the shield? Once I gather my conclave, we can have it back up in an instant. Nothing has changed. All of those objects—and your kingdoms—are still in the thrall of the Winter Enchantment.” She took a few menacing steps toward us. “Not that it’ll be your concern before long. Know this, before I make the blood in your head burst: Your lands will suffer terribly for this insult. It won’t matter who succeeds after your death. I will strip those lands of all life, they will freeze and suffer as no other—ah!”