"Who can tell me what three things does Macbeth learn from the witches and apparitions and how does he react to them?" My English teacher asks the class a week later. We had just finished reading Act 4 of Macbeth and the teacher was giving us a quiz. My depression and anxiety had gone away after a few days and I was mostly back to normal. Except for the fact that I was studying very hard on both my elemental and regular school studies. I was a bit more tired than normal because I have been staying up extra late for all the studying. The quarterback for the football team had been suspended until after the Thanksgiving holiday so a good two and a half weeks. Payton had started to talk to Adam, Garrett, and I more, without my encouragement, which also helped calm my nerves about that situation. The teacher looked for a student to call on.
"Hmm… Zoey?" He asks a girl that was seated in the front row. I saw her pale freckled cheeks turn a light shade of pink. She knew the answer, she was very intelligent, but she was just very, very shy. Her forest green eyes looked down at her book, her red curly hair covering her pink cheeks.
"The witches said that Macbeth should fear Macduff, he is thankful for the warning. He shouldn't fear any man born of a woman; he rethinks his views on Macduff. Nothing will affect his reign until Birnam Wood moves, he knows that a forest can't get up and move so he is very secure in the fact that he will reign until he dies of natural causes." She says with her soft quite voice.
"Correct." The teacher says and continues on to the next question. I had never really noticed her before; in fact I don't think anyone really did, other than the teachers. The bell signaling the end of class rang, and I gathered my stuff as I watched her grab her things and leave the classroom quickly.
"Remember read Act 5 before Monday!" I hear my English teacher say as the class hurried to leave. I leave the classroom and try to follow Zoey to talk to her, but by the time I had made it to the hallway she had disappeared. I sighed and went onto my next class which was choir.
"Grace concentrate!" Carlisle says to my right. I was at the Cullen's house after school. He wanted me to start learning earth bending without using my sight. Edward had suggested it after I had let my mind slip about Toph from the last air bender, and how she taught Aang to do earth bending by feeling not by sight. It was strange how I had so many similarities with one of my favorite childhood shows.
"Can we please just stop for today?" I ask. I had been working on this for an hour already and I had gotten nowhere. I was tired and sore. Carlisle had all the Cullen's participating, and they would attack me without warning. I had to fend them off with earth bending. At first I was hesitant, because I didn't want to hurt them, but once Emmitt body slammed me to the ground and knocked the wind out of me I had no problem with attacking them. And then there was Jacob. He wasn't fighting me but I swear I heard him making some popcorn not to long ago.
"You know you're entirely too lazy for your own good." I could hear Jacob say. I used my feet to find where he was sitting. I picked up a small rock and chucked it at him.
"Ow! What was that for?" I hear him ask.
"It's not my fault that you're too lazy to move out of my line of fire, I was looking for Jasper." I lie. I knew Jasper was on the opposite side of Jacob and everyone else knew I knew that. Then I felt someone coming at me from behind. I swing around and send the earth up at the person. I hear Bella 'oomph', and then land about a football field's length away from me.
"Sorry…" I say sympathetically her way. I really didn't mean to hurt her if I did.
"It's ok, that's why we are here, to help you." She says coming up to the group again. This went on for another hour, well basically until me picking up rocks and throwing them at the vamps wasn't possible anymore. It wasn't that I didn't have the agility; it was them attacking me that got to me. I wasn't as strong as I once thought. Of course if I had my sight things would be so much easier.
"No one ever said this was going to be easy." Edward says coming up behind me and taking the blindfold off.
"Thank you mister obvious." I say. I walk over to where Jacob is sitting and sit next to him. I take the water bottle, that he was about to drink out of out of his hands, and take a drink of it myself. He glared at me as I took a drink and I looked at him.
"You know you have to be the rudest person I have ever met." Embry says from behind me. This made me jump and spit water out. I look at a now laughing Embry. I could hear Jacob trying to withhold a laugh.
"Yah I'm the rude one." I say as I whip the water off of my chin.
"It's just too easy to scare you Grace." Embry says coming and sitting on my other side. I get up though.
"Where are you going?" Jacob asks me. I turn and look at the two of them as I walk away backwards.
"I got to go do homework." I say. It wasn't a total lie I did have homework, I just didn't want the Cullen's to start practicing again. They were apparently getting other Vampire's to come and see that Renesmee wasn't and 'immortal child' and they needed to contact them. I turn around and head for my car. I get in my car, ignoring Embry's plea for me to stay, and head home.
Over the next week I did nothing but study and practice nonstop. Only taking about 6 hours out of each day to eat, sleep, and use the bathroom.
"Grace are you ok?" Garrett asks me one morning I was leaning against my locker waiting for the bell to ring when he had come up to me to ask. I nod my head too tired to use words. I had to admit I was starting to think I was overworking myself.
"Hey Grace!" Garrett says grabbing a hold of my shoulder. I must have started too dozed off. I jolted awake.
"I'm fine." I lied, I really needed sleep.
"You've kind of been out of it this week. Is everything ok?" He asks me worried. I nod my head.
"I have just been studding a lot lately. Maybe a bit too much." I say. I didn't lie I just didn't tell him what I studied. The bell rang and we both headed for our first class.
Later that day I was in the Library, The sub said I could come down here to study, instead I had my head on the table and I was half asleep.
"Ummm… Grace…" I hear a soft voice say to me. I look up and see Zoey standing there. I wipe away the small drool stain from the side of my lip and blush slightly. It was a habit that I didn't really like about myself.
"Oh Zoey, Hi." I say trying to sound like I wasn't sleeping.
"I'm sorry if I disturbed you, but Mrs. Stanly is coming around and checking on students. If she caught you sleeping you would have gotten in trouble." Zoey says warning me about the librarian. And in a matter of seconds, Mrs. Stanly walked around one of the book shelves.
"Good Afternoon girls, studying?" She asks us. I nod my head as she passes and Zoey nods her head and smiles. Mrs. Stanly rounds another corner and we can hear her scolding and going after a couple who were making out.
"Thanks for that." I say once Mrs. Stanly was out of ear shot. Zoey smiled.
"No problem. You seem to be exhausted lately." She comments. Apparently it was showing to those who even were my closest friends.
"Yah, I've been really busy with a lot of things lately." I say. It wasn't a lie I just kept is discreet.
"Well, if you ever need help with anything, ummm, maybe I could help." She says growing quieter with her sentence. I smile; I couldn't understand why I hadn't considered talking to her before.
"Thanks Zoey." I say with a smile. She helped me stay awake and concentrated on my work for the rest of the hour. The rest of the day was just as grueling as that hour.
"Maybe you should rest today Grace." Carlisle says to me that evening. I was working extra hard and regrettably failing just as hard as well.
"No! I need to learn this." I say in the direction I thought Carlisle was, the blindfold had me blinded after all.
"Grace you're not going to learn anything if you over work yourself." Bella says to me. I sigh in frustration.
"I am fine. Just go again." I reply, I wasn't going to give up. I was way too stubborn for my own good. I could sense there hesitation but finally it was Edward who attacked me first. I hit him but it was a weak blow. He was able to attack me again while Alice and Emmett attacked me. I hit my fist to the ground hard and a ripple of earth took out Edward and Alice, but only delayed Emmitt. As the other Cullen's joined I was finding it harder to fend them off and my muscles were begging me to give in, when someone unexpected jumped into the party. I wasn't able to fend them off though and they had my arms held behind my back in a matter of seconds.
"You really think you're going to fend off some Vampires if you can't even fight a wolf in his human form?" I hear Jacob whisper in my right ear. I try to break free from him but he holds my arms behind my back tighter.
"She's done." Jacob says.
"No I'm not!" I say to the vampires. Well I hope I was saying it to them.
"She is." Jacob says sternly and I hear the Cullen's agreeing in their minds. They all left me and Jacob at my training spot deep in the forest. When Jacob finally lets go of my arms I move away from him as I take my blind fold off.
"I was doing just fine." I say angry at him.
"Yah if you consider killing yourself fine." He says annoyed. I glare at him and start heading back towards the Cullen's. I stumble slightly over a log and Jacob catches me before I fell completely.
"I was fine!" I say angry, I was a very emotional person when I was tired.
"I could see that." He snapped back at me. Before I could protest any longer he grabs me a flings me over his shoulder.
"JACOB SET ME DONW NOW!" I scream at his back. I start to hit and kick but there was no use he started to walk back to the Cullen's like I wasn't even struggling or even being carried.
"You're just wasting your energy." He comments with ease as he continues to walk. I mumble an 'I hate you' and I could feel Jacob laughing slightly. When we got to the Cullen's house he let me down. I hit him in the arm with all the energy I could muster, which wasn't much, and then started to walk to my car. I turn and look at him as I walk backwards.
"You're on my bad side ag…" I started to say but then was suddenly stopped by a strong pulling in my chest.
"Grace…" Jacob says. He must have noticed a change in me. I went to say something when the force became stronger and it felt like all the air in my body had disappeared. I gasped for breath but none came, started to struggle with staying conscience. There was a burning in my chest before I collapsed on the ground. Before my head even hit the ground I had blacked out.
I opened my eyes… I was looking at the trees. I looked around and noticed Jacob running at me in slow motion. But he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at something else. I look down at what he was looking at and it was my body falling to the ground.
"Jacob don't!" I hear Carlisle say slowly. Him and the others were running, well it looked like slow motion walking towards my body. Carlisle was too late with his warning and when Jacob went to touch my body to stop me from falling, he was sent flying back by a bright light and explosion.
"JACOB!" I scream, but where I was it sounded more like a whisper. It echoed around me but none of the Cullen's could hear me.
"Grace…" I hear a woman's soft voice calling my name. I look back into the woods where I hear the voice coming from; there was a faint bluish glow. I look back to the group; Carlisle was going to attend Jacob.
"Grace come to me." The voice said again. I look at my friends, hesitating. "They will be alright. I need to talk to you." The voice says. I hesitate only for another moment seeing Jacob sitting up. I knew he would be ok. But then I wondered, was I ok.
I turn towards the woods and start to go towards them. With inhuman, and in-vampire like speed, I was already half way through the woods. I stop a bit confused; I definitely wasn't use to moving that fast. I look around and see the blue glow and now fog coming from my right. I follow it a bit slowly, learning to control the speed. The closer I got to the glow the harder it was to see.
"Hello Grace." I hear the women's voice. I was more melodic and majestic now that I was near her. She was radiantly beautiful. She had glowing blonde hair that went to her mid section, her features were flawless and she had an amazing shade of eyes. The color was a mix of yellow, red, blue, and green. I knew without a doubt that she was The Queen of the Elementals, and I automatically bowed down to her.
"Raise my daughter." She says. I arose and looked up at her. She smiled warmly at me. "I am Amalada, The creator of our kind." She introduces herself. You have come far dear, but you still have a very far way to go."
"So you mean I'm not dead." I ask. She laughs a very beautiful laugh.
"Of course not. You have just entered the spirit world, unwillingly of course." She says. "I have brought you here because I needed to speak with you. I would have before but you are very hard to gain control of." She says. I wasn't sure if I should take that as a positive thing or a negative thing so I just nodded my head.
"I have been protecting you for a very long time now. The Volturi think that my kind is dead and they do not know of you, yet." She emphasized the yet. "When they do, do not let them know your fears, stand strong and brave, and do not be easily fooled by them. Use what gifts I have given to you. And always remember there is a light even in the darkest of times."
"How can I defeat them?" I ask. I wanted to know ever possible strategy that I could. She smiled.
"By using your gifts. It was common of me giving my children gifts when they were born, but with you I have given you two, the power to hear others thoughts and the power to control the deepest depths of the mind. These powers work easily on humans, the slightest thought by you can make them at your mercy. They are minimized in vampires, and all other creatures, only because their brains do not function like humans, with an elemental though it is much harder to use your power on them, but there is only you left so you don't need to worry about them." She explains. She was teaching me a great deal more than Carlisle could.
"What about the wolf pack on the reservation and Jaco…" I almost told her about Jacob and how he and I could communicate when in our animal forms. She smiled.
"The pack was created by my brother and I respected him by disallowing my children to use their special powers on the pack. As for Jacob, he is you aeternam amor, elementals have always had some sort of special connection with them." She says.
"I really don't like how I have a connection with him." I state. It was more of an 'I hate the whole you're forcing me to love him' statement.
"You're not being forced into anything Grace. Love can be a variety of many things, whether it is brother and sister, just as friends, or as lovers. You still have control over how you feel for him. The pull is just there for when you two need each other the most." She says.
"Then why can I only go up to four days without seeing him?" I ask.
"Because either you needed him or he needed you. Sooner or later you both will be able to figure out how to work your bond, but only when you two learn what you truly want with the relationship." She says. Before I could say anything more though I hear a snap and look behind me. There stood Jacob in his wolf form, his hairs were standing up and his teeth were showing, he was growling very loudly. I look back at the queen.
"Can he see us?" I ask her. She nods her head.
"He can, Animals have a sixth sense after all. But for his to see us so clearly is, rather amazing. You two have a very strong bond at such an early stage. That is a very good sign." She says as I turn towards Jacob. He growls louder when she speaks.
"Jacob I'm fine, she's not going to hurt me, she is helping me." I say not sure if he could understand me. He looks to me and whimpers, and then I feel a flash of worry run through my spirit.
"Very amazing." The queen observed. "Never have I seen a bond like this before." She says it must have been odd even in the spirit world.
"What's amazing?" I ask her.
"Never in my existence have I seen an elemental be able to communicate with her aeternam amor while in the spirit state, to feel what he is feeling even now." She mused.
"Surely you knew this would happen when you put me with Jacob." I said. She shook her head no and laughed.
"I did no such thing child. That sort of power lies with the highest power. Now before you go I need you to understand that you have powers beyond what you know. My time as Queen and mother is coming close to an end, you are the last there will ever be of my children. Now go Grace." She says.
"Wait what do you mean by last?" I ask. But before I could get an answer there was a flash of light and with a great gasp I opened my eyes and was in my own body again.