Flashback ( PDFDrive )

“Not like this. Our hives are celebrated. They would never be kept
hidden.”
“Oh, I believe you will find that there is much to keep hidden here,”
Vespera said with another gleeful smile. “Unseal the entrance, Alvar.”
“NO!” Tarina lunged to grab his arm—only to find herself dragged
back by Cadfael.
“You don’t give the orders, little troll,” he said as Tarina twisted
and thrashed.
“And you don’t understand,” she snarled back. “That is an active
hive! And look at the sky.” She pointed to the moon, where the last of
the red was slowly slipping away as the eclipse finished its cycle. Her
eyes locked with Sophie’s, and Sophie tasted bile when Tarina added,
“You don’t know what stirs in there.”
“But that is exactly what the world needs to find out,” Vespera
insisted, waving Alvar forward. He frowned at the silver door,
searching for a latch.
“I’m serious!” Tarina shouted. “If any newborns have hatched, you
cannot unleash them.”
Cadfael tightened his grip as she tried to break free again. “You’re
really so scared of your own kin?”
“Newborns have no kin,” Tarina told him. “No reason. Not even any
self-preservation. Just insatiable hunger and unfathomable strength.
They are my kind in our most primal, animalistic stage, and we keep
them locked away until the worst of their bloodlust sates.”
“These will not be normal newborns,” Vespera assured her. “Luzia
and your empress have been experimenting—trying to infuse that
power and strength into a being with more cunning reason.”