JACK PUSHED HIS FACE through the bars. The water surged up and washed over him. Salt water, it made him want to vomit. Why did every ocean here or back in his home world have to be made of freaking icy cold, salt water?
How many times had the cage filled with water, only to peak and disappear right before it grew high enough to overwhelm him, a hundred, a thousand? He couldn’t remember. It felt like he’d spent his entire life in the cage fighting to survive.
Every time the water returned to the cage it grew higher. Every time he would find a way to escape it by climbing higher up the side of the cage, gripping the rock walls just beyond for leverage. The last time he’d barely managed to push his face hard enough through the bars to breathe until the water disappeared again back into the
