Flashback ( PDFDrive )

The air seemed to swallow their voices, which must’ve been another
part of the illusion keeping the hive hidden.
“We should hurry,” Tarina told them, heading for the path. “We
usually keep the transport pods toward the back of the hive, so we still
have some walking ahead of us.”
Of course they did.
Because nothing could ever be quick or easy—even when lives were
on the line.
“Anything we should know before we go down there?” Fitz asked.
“Yes,” Tarina told him. “Don’t touch anything.”
That turned out to be an easy rule to follow.
The hive was made of a gloopy, sticky mud coated in stinky
bioluminescent fungus that filled the massive cavern with a subtle
blue-green glow. And the walls were long rows of stacked
compartments—kind of like a honeycomb. Each cubby was sealed off
with a thick, slimy membrane. And inside?
It truly was like something out of science fiction.
The unhatched troll babies floated in some sort of green jelly that
reminded Sophie of the aloe vera gel her human parents used to smear
on her sunburns, only filled with tiny bubbles that had a soft white
glow. And even with their bodies half curled, the baby trolls towered
over Tarina, their muscles bulging and lined with dark veins.
Some of them moved, stretching against their barriers and making
the membranes drip milky fluid onto the stone floor. Others had their
eyes open, staring at nothing—or maybe staring at everything. Sophie
didn’t want to know which. All she knew was that it felt like the beasts
could burst free any second, and she was very glad Silveny’s babies
would be kept somewhere else.