Chapter 20 The Price Of Power

• The air in the penthouse felt thick with tension as Serria sat across from Sebastian, her mind whirring with the implications of his offer. She had always known that power in this city came at a cost, but hearing it laid out so plainly, so directly, made her realize just how high the stakes had become.
• Sebastian’s words lingered in the air between them like a heavy fog: *Do you want to lead this city, or do you want to watch it burn?*
• The truth was, Serria didn’t want to watch anything burn. She wanted to rebuild, to restore what her father had built and take it further—to cleanse it of corruption and deceit, to carve a path that didn’t rely on fear or manipulation. But she had seen enough of the world’s underbelly to know that sometimes, to build, you had to destroy. And sometimes, to hold power, you needed to align yourself with those whose morals were less... flexible.