Thank you to Gaia Kame for letting me know that I uploaded Chapter 19 a second time! Here's the real Chapter 20!

Erza sighed as she looked at the book sitting on her coffee table: Daily Spells for your Daily Life. She hadn't touched the book since she brought it home in fear of what she would find. If Ultear was right, the book was a regular spellbook that shouldn't be given a second thought. But if Erza was right and there was something wrong with the book, then there was something bad happening.

Erza wasn't familiar with spells. She had never watched someone use one, let alone cast one herself. That was part of the reason why she was at such a lost. Despite Ultear saying that there was nothing suspicious about the book, she couldn't bring herself to believe it. And it wasn't until Jellal came in the room that she realized why.

"Are you still looking at that book?" Jellal asked. He sat very close to her and set his cup of coffee down, as well as a fresh cup for her. "Are you going to try to do some magic?" He pressed a soft kiss to the side of her head. "If that's what you're doing, then just go for it. It won't freak me out. I promise."

Erza sighed. "It's not that," she told him. She had had concerns in the past about worrying him or disturbing him with her magic, so she understood why he assumed what he did. "Ultear and I were trying to find the book with Urano Metria in it. That's the spell Lucy used on Ultear's birthday. We think that it might be part of the reason why she disappeared."

Jellal was quiet for a few minutes, taking the time to process the information. "So did you find the book?" he asked. "And what is this one for?" He motioned to the book sitting in front of them.

Erza sighed again. "That's what I'm trying to figure out." She didn't even bother hiding her frustration. "As soon as I picked up this book I thought there was something with it. Ultear didn't think so, but I'm convinced. That's why I brought it home. I've been trying to figure out what's wrong with it the whole time."

Jellal picked up the book. "Are you talking about it being glassy?" he asked. "I mean new books are shiny, but they don't look like this."

Erza knew that her husband was smart, so she wasn't surprised that he realized right away that something was off. Her shock came when he was able to tell her what exactly was wrong with the book.

"It's because there's a spell on the book, right?" Jellal asked her. "It's glassy because it isn't the real cover. It's just an illusion." He noticed the strange look he was receiving. "See, if you watched movies with me then you'd know about this. It's a classic trick."

Erza took the book from him. "I never watch them because it is degrading to a real magic-user like me," she said sharply. She wasn't really mad, though, and Jellal knew that. "So how do you usually break the spell?"

Jellal thought a moment. "It depends. Sometimes the knowledge that it's a spell is enough. Sometimes you have to hit it off something. That's when it's easy. When it's hard to break you usually have to-."

Erza's thoughts began to wander. She thought about the first time she met Lucy. The blonde girl was so cheery, so full of life and happiness. Then Loke told her about all the horrible things Lucy had to go through as a child, and Erza realized that the girl's happiness was truly a miracle. The fact that someone could be trying to hurt Lucy again enraged the redhead. It wasn't about a misused spell anymore. No, someone was attacking Lucy and trying to cover their tracks.

"Erza!" Jellal gasped.

Erza snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Jellal. His wide eyes were looking at the book. She looked down and saw that her fingers were pressed hard against the book. And then she felt water drip onto her lap.

"It's...melting," Erza said in amazement. She laid her palm over the cover and used her magic to heat-up her hands, this time intentionally. She didn't have as much magic as Natsu, which is why she usually handled the holidays and left him to take care of the weather, but she was able to heat her hand.

"Of course," Jellal said. He took the book from Erza and used his sleeve to wipe off the excess water. There was a hole in the ice, and they could see that the book was actually a dirty red color. "Let's go put it in the oven."

Erza knew that she had to contact Ultear to tell her about the book and the spell places on it. Someone had changed the cover of the book, knowing Lucy would look inside. They wanted her to use the spell, because they knew what she would use it for. If the spell had been a regular one, then the person could have been anyone. But since the spell involved ice, that narrowed down the search.

The person had to be a Winter Guardian.

X

"This should warm you up," Gray said. He handed Lucy a steaming cup of tea, which she gratefully took. Gray set his own cup on the coffee table before sitting down beside Lucy on the couch.

Lucy took a long sip of her drink before setting it down beside Gray's. She pulled her blanket tighter around her shoulders and snuggled up to Gray's side, to his surprise. He quickly recovered from his shock and put his arm around her. He had really thought she would have some sort of regrets about their shared kiss on the lake and wouldn't want anything to do with him, but clearly she didn't regret their moment at all.

"I wish I could remember who I am," Lucy said.

Gray was startled by the sudden topic change, one so different from the romantic one he was just thinking about. "Do you remember anything at all?"

"I remember someone named Loke," Lucy said. "I think I remember him saving me from something." She thought a moment. "And the word 'Guardian' sounds familiar."

Gray decided to take-on one challenge at a time. "What do you remember about Loke? Was he your brother?"

"I don't think so. If he was my brother, I wouldn't have met him when I was older." She thought about her memory of Loke bursting into the room to save her from that room with the barred windows.

Gray didn't exactly know which memory she was thinking of, but he was sure that it made sense in her mind. "Okay, so what about the Guardians?" he asked.

"I don't know," Lucy said. She let out a long sigh. "Can we forget about it for right now? My head hurts."

Gray put his arm around Lucy as she moved her head into his lap. He was frustrated that their talk didn't yield any useful information for him. Lyon would be happy to know he could search for Lucy's that don't have siblings; maybe he could narrow his search and finally find her family.