I couldn’t help but think those cicadas had been summoned. I wondered if Mott had been there all along lurking in the shadows, perhaps crawling through the walls as she observed my every move. A wizened guardian whose intent I had yet to determine. But I wouldn’t contemplate her motives at the moment. I needed to keep my wits about me so that I could find my way back to the road. Before I’d gone too deeply into the maze, I paused to gather my bearings, mentally reversing Owen’s instructions. I heard no sounds of pursuit, human or otherwise, and after a while, I began to wonder if Micah had only meant to frighten me away. I still couldn’t come up with a rational explanation for Dr. Shaw’s absence unless he and his investigator had also been scared off. I found that prospect unlikely, but wherever they’d gone to, I needed to find them. I’d been traveling through the maze at a good clip, senses on alert for any threatening sound or movement when I ran into a dead end.
