Ruby Monroe is an unusual teacher who gives special lessons to students ages three hours to 102 years. They are guides for other people, animals, even plants and elements, but they don't always know it, nor do they want to.
For every person Ruby finds, there is an equally opposing force with students of its own. These two realms exist in tandem with a practical understanding and dependence on each other as the price of free will, our greatest gift.
Now an old woman fond of shooting whiskey, chewing bubble gum and watching TV game shows, Ruby is tired and ready for rest. When she finds her replacement at last, will someone's mistake finally tip the scales unfavorably, possibly fatally, towards life without second chances or redemption for anyone?
Ruby must win the most difficult chess match of her life to stop the wicked and there is only one way to try; Ruby goes to hell.
With a new name and new life, Nathan must learn to fit in at an Academy of the Feral Investigation Bureau, or risk being sent back to prison.
*****
Escaping prison was only the beginning for inmate C41. Now on the run and going by Nathan, he's enrolled in an American Academy for training agents and joins the Feral Investigation Bureau, charged with hunting down criminals and sending them to the same place he just escaped. But after learning how blurred the distinction is between feral and non-feral, Nathan is forced to flee with his sister and his boyfriend, only to discover their safe house hides a secret that might cost Nathan his freedom.
Content and/or Trigger Warning: sex and violence. [Note: failed suicide attempt]
[[word count: 70,000-80,000 words]]