The inhuman roar preempted the shaking of the doors by a total of five seconds. Nemissa’s breath caught in her throat. Either mucus or blood streamed down from her nose, she couldn’t tell. It would all feel the same in a moment.

“My lady?”

“There’s nowhere to run now. He’s here.” Giving up wasn’t an option though. She didn’t have that opportunity. “Where is my son?”

“Safe.”

“Thank you,” she told her chamberlain. Wiping off her face, she saw that very little of it was blood. Satisfied, she stood up on her chair.

“My lady?”

“Be ready to defend yourself.” Nemissa yanked the window curtain down, jumping back off of the chair as the rod clattered to the ground. She knelt down, picking it up.

The chamberlain swallowed, then cast his eye about. “Y-yes, my lady.”

He would hesitate to strike against his lord. As much as she would hesitate to strike her husband. But the man out there was no longer her husband. Whatever this illness had done to him, he was no longer there.

She shifted her hands around the rod and faced the doors. They shook again – they wouldn’t be able to hold up for much longer. “Ready?”

Her chamberlain had picked up a chair. Less reach, more mass. “As much as I can be.”

“That makes the both of us.”

The creature then entered the room and the two of them descended upon the Baron with their weapons.