Free Between the Sea and Sky by Jaclyn Dolamore

suddenly darkness blanked her vision. She slumped, and although she didn’t quite lose consciousness, she felt disoriented and couldn’t see.
    “Whoa,” Alan said, and in another moment he had her arm and was helping her up. “When did you last eat or drink, Esmerine?”
    “I don’t know …” Her head was still black and spinning.
    “I’ll come back tomorrow,” the other man said. “I hope you feel much better, miss.”
    “I’m sorry,” Esmerine said, close to tears. “I didn’t think I’d faint … I just—I’ve never been so hot and my clothes are so tight and—I’ve been so much trouble—” Nothing was going as she’d planned.
    “It’s all right. It’s very different here.” Still holding her arm, Alan locked the shop door. “Can you make it up the stairs?”
    Her vision was starting to clear a little, but her heart was still pounding, and her feet stung, and she wanted to sob at the thought of stairs, but she said, “Yes.” She’d already done a good job humiliating herself around him.
    The narrow stairs made slow groaning noises when stepped on. Somehow or another she managed to make it upstairs and into the spare room.
    “Lie down,” Alan said. “I’ll get you some water.” He opened the window.
    Once she was on the bed, with a sea-scented breeze blowing across her, Esmerine began to calm a little. Despite the street noise, the room was airy and peaceful, and very much Alan’s taste. A bookshelf faced her from one wall, and on the other, a large desk with an angled top and stool, obviously meant to accomodate a Fandarsee’s wings.
    Just then, Alan returned with a cup of water and a bowl of berries.
    “You’ll feel better with something to eat and drink,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed. He regarded her a moment and then offered her his wing so she could pull herself upright. His skin was warmer than hers, but dry against her sweaty palms.
    “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I don’t know what came over me. I don’t usually faint . Even when I haven’t eaten.” She sucked down the cup of water he gave her and immediately started hiccuping. Every convulsion made her ribs ache. Just when she was starting to recover, Alan got to see her hiccuping . She desperately wanted out of the stays.
    “Esmerine, listen. You just got here. You’re not used to being stuffed into human clothes or being out in the heat and the dry air—sitting on rocks or beaches isn’t the same as going into the city. It’s perfectly understandable, and if you’re going to be here for a week, this won’t be the last of your miseries, I’m sure. Swift will go after Dosia, and you try and rest. I’m going to send Ginnia in here to help you out of your clothes.”
    He left the room. She wished he wouldn’t go, until she reminded herself that he was only being nice because she’d nearly collapsed in his bookstore.
    Ginnia was clearly the hired help, a girl in an apron with very kind eyes set in a round face that was homely but entirely likable.
    “No wonder you’re so miserable, miss. This dress is meant for somebody smaller.”
    “But I don’t have any other.”
    “Rest for now. Maybe you can get something in the market.”
    “I don’t have any money.”
    “I’m sure Master Dare will know what to do.” Ginnia took her empty water cup.
    “I didn’t come here to trouble him,” Esmerine insisted, but Ginnia was heading for the door and didn’t respond. Esmerine heard her murmuring to Alan in another room. She heard him say testily, “I can’t just—” The rest was lost, but it was obviously about her.
    The worst part was that she couldn’t simply leave and deny his help. She did need his help. Now that she was here, she wished she had never found him again. Her memories of him were so much better, and now they would be tarnished.
    She ate the berries and drifted off to sleep. The house had gone quiet. She woke some time later when Alan entered carrying a sky-blue dress