"You know how much I drool in my sleep," she mutters, the protest still half-hearted at best. "I bet I was drooling way more than that the whole time I was sick."

She finally eases away from Edgar, just enough to sit next to him with her whole side pressed up against his. Maybe he'll notice, now that they're separated, but the black locket that'd been a permanent fixture around her neck since late spring?

It's gone.