"When the time is right, souls will find each other, transcending the barriers of the universe, untouched by the constraints of time."
"Your grandfather, James Sinclair."
Her heart started pounding erratically against her chest and her eyes were already burning with unshed tears. This was what Ace wanted to talk about.
Chloe's grandfather?
Before she could utter a single word, Ace continued with a small mocking smile on his face, "I'm going to offer you a chance to do something, Chloe Sinclair. But please understand that what I'm about to tell you is not to be taken lightly at all. This might well possibly be the hardest thing you're ever going to do."
Well, this certainly did not sound promising at all.
Ace was about to further explain what was going on, but the old man from before returned to their table with their cups of tea. His hands were shaking as he set the tray down and he still looked beyond nervous.
Turning towards the poor old man, "Thank you, Sir." Chloe said, smiling as warmly as she could.
The old man nodded with a shaky smile before leaving their table again.
"What are you talking about Ace be more specific, please?"
Chloe demanded, taking a cup of steaming tea, just to portray that everything was normal between them, though she was shivering from inside.
"If you choose to believe me," Ace began in a gravely serious voice. "I'm going to help you to find the three objects that will send you back to 2004, where you have to stop Jack Sinclair, your father, from going into 1927."
She spat out the sip of tea she had just taken and stared at Ace as if he had just asked her if she could perform witchcraft or something supernatural.
"Excuse me?" She croaked, grappling around for a napkin on the table. "You want me to do what?"
"I believe you heard me correctly, Chloe," Ace sighed, across looking coming over his face.
"You have got to be kidding!" Chloe shrieked, slamming her teacup down on the table. "I know you are already insane, but this… this is taking it to an entirely new level!"
"Listen-"
"No!" Chloe cut Ace off in between as the unshed tears started pouring down her hazel eyes. "I'm pretending like everything is normal here, but it's not!" With one hand's fingers through her hair frustratingly, she continued, "My grandfather is dead. I-It hurts so bad, I can't breathe. I can't- I can't do anything. I can't, okay?"
Ace kept quiet, just studying her features, her mood, and her frustration for some time as she covered her face with her palms. He gave her time to calm down until her breath started to flow in and out rhythmically.
After some time, he arched an elegant black eyebrow when Chloe uncovered her face and looked at him, his thin lips pursed in an unpleasant expression.
"You mean to say that you don't want to save Jack and James Sinclair, I apologize if I didn't mention your mother, Isabella Sinclair."
Her eyes widened as the concept of the mother was still foreign to her, she had always seen her mother in pictures, but she never understood how it felt to have a mother because she never got to meet her, and that angered her as she spat:
"Don't talk about her and either of my family."
He leaned back in his chair, a satisfied look coming across his face.
She did not know when she had gotten to her feet, or when she had clenched her fists either, but now she was leaning across the table with a furiously angry look on her face.
"That told me everything I needed to know," Ace smirked, drumming his fingers on the table again.
For a moment, she glanced at the guard who was half-up in his seat, ready to intervene, but Chloe shook her head, "I'm fine." She reassured, making him sit down.
She dropped back into her seat with a heavy sigh, glaring daggers across the table at him.
"You want me to go back in time and stop my father to go back in time?" Chloe repeated for confirmation, taking a deep breath. "How stupid does it sound?"
Ace nodded, looking pleased with himself. "That's right."
He had to be joking, there was no way in hell that this could actually be possible or true.
This man might be high on drugs.
"No, I'm not on drugs, Sinclair. I know it sounds crazy." Ace confirmed.
"Explain." She demanded, gnawing nervously on her lip.
Ace shrugged an indifferent shoulder, examining his long fingers. "I don't have to."
"That's not funny!" She barked, slamming her fist down on the table. "Explain this freaking concept you have come up with Ace or whatever your true name is!"
"Oh, don't give me such big credit, your father, Jack Sinclair came up with this exciting concept, and yes you will someday learn my real name," he replied, smirking in that uber-creepy way again.
"And I can't exactly explain the reason. That is not up for discussion. But if you succeed, however… well, we will probably be having another discussion like this one."
"But how am I-"
"Going to succeed?" Ace supplied for her. "I can't tell you that. That's something you're going to have to figure out on your own."
So, Ace wanted to send her back in 2004 to keep her father from going back in time.
But how on earth was she going to do that? If that was possible at all!
"Why 2004?" Chloe asked against her better judgment.
"Because-" Ace spoke nonchalantly. "-in 2004 Jack's research to open time portals was completed, hence he decided to go back in time."
"For what?" She asked, sipping convulsively at her tea, gripping her cup so tightly it would not have surprised her if it shattered in her hands.
"You'll figure it out," he spoke, shrugging.
How the hell was she supposed to do this?
She could barely fight with anyone on her own, let alone do the unthinkable.
There was no doubt in her mind that she wanted to know the truth behind this fiasco, she was just worried that she was going to fail at this.
With that thought in mind, she looked up at Ace who was staring outside, "Why me?" Chloe asked.
"I'm not allowed to speak that truth out; I have taken enough risk to have a chat with you in public. That answer you have to find on your own."
More secrets!
From all the unanswered questions, one was, what was going to happen if she failed?
Chloe had a sneaking suspicion that she did not really want to think about that.
But she had to ask, right?
"And if… if I fail?" She asked hesitantly, feeling like she was about to burst into tears again.
He took a sip of his cup of tea, an undefinable look in his dark eyes that she didn't want to know.
"You don't want to know the answer to that, Chloe Sinclair. Trust me."
She indeed wanted to know everything, the research and all but there was this nagging thought in the back of her mind that kept her freaking out about failing.
What if she was not able to do that? Then what would happen?
As she was internally freaking out about all of this, she suddenly remembered her grandfather's dead body and how those killers came for her, how that person with golden eyes saved her life.
If she does what Ace proposed, she might also know the truth behind that golden-eyed man, or whatever he was.
If she wanted to prove that she wasn't going crazy, she had to do this.
There was no doubt in her mind now.
Swallowing the rest of her tea, she set the cup back down on the table, and announced, "I'll do it."
He gave a short nod, rubbing a hand across his jaw in thought. "All right."
She swallowed hard, glancing nervously at him. "So, what do I do now?" She asked, brushing back a strand of her hair from her face.
Setting his cup down, "Leave London, move back to Florida. You will find all your answers there." Said, Ace.
"But-"
He hushed, leaning forward on his elbows, reaching out to run his bony fingers through the flame of a slowly burning candle set off to the side on the table.
"All in good time, Chloe Sinclair."
That was all she remembered before Ace blew something on her face and she fell into this endless pit of fathomless darkness and then nothing at all.