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"Last I checked, they had three of them. In one, you can be a dragon shifter or the dragon shifter's mate. In another, you can be a dragon rider, and in yet another, you can be a dragon slayer or the dragon slayer's mate."
She couldn't wait to try the first, but not the third. Margo liked to think of dragons as magical creatures who were intelligent and could communicate their thoughts to humans. She didn't want to think of them as monsters.
"You seem to know a lot about Perfect Match adventures," Negal said. "Have you participated in any?"
She chuckled. "I can't afford them on what I make, but once I become a beta tester, I hope to try as many as I can. Just not the dragon slayer one."
A smile lifted his perfectly shaped lips. "Not even if the dragons are killing people, eating entire flocks of sheep, and destroying crops? Don't they deserve slaying?"
That sounded like a typical epic fantasy scenario, so maybe the guy was a reader, and there was still hope for him. He wasn't a complete bore.
Margo tilted her head. "You also seem to know a lot about dragons. Are you a fantasy reader?"
Negal winced as if her question made him uncomfortable, and he averted his gaze. "I've seen a few movies."
"Which ones? I've probably seen every dragon movie ever made."
He swallowed. "I don't remember the titles."
"What were they about? If you tell me even a little bit, I can probably recognize which one it is and tell you the title."
"Raya and the Last Dragon," Jasmine said. "It was a cute movie. Also, How to Train Your Dragon."
There was still no response from Negal.
Had he lied about watching dragon movies? Why would he?
"Dragonheart," said the guy piloting the ship. "Corny as hell, but I liked the dragon."
"There is nothing to like about them," Negal sneered. "They are mindless beasts and a menace."
He was talking about dragons as if they were real. The guy was so weird.
"Oh, well." Kevin sighed loudly. "Flying lizards seem to be a point of contention, so let's change the subject." He turned to Jasmine. "What kind of virtual adventure would you like to try out?"
"I don't know what's available. I really liked Sisu, the shifter dragon in Raya, so if they have anything like that, I would love to be her. I like fairytales in general, so I would also enjoy Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella."
Margo snorted. "Funny that you should say that. You're the last person to identify with Cinderella unless you've already met the fairy godmother, and she gave you those looks for keeps."
What was really funny was that Margo had just been thinking about feeling like one of the wicked stepsisters.
Jasmine's eyes clouded. "You'd be surprised how much I identify with her. Only in real life, I have two evil stepbrothers instead of two wicked stepsisters."
Now Margo felt like an ass. Being beautiful didn't necessarily mean having a charmed life, and she should know that better than most. Not that she was in Jasmine's league, but she'd experienced the darker side of being considered attractive.
There were many advantages to having pleasing looks, but for women and girls, it also meant being more alluring to predators.
"When you talked about your parents, I assumed that they were together," Margo said as gently as she could. "You didn't mention them being divorced."
Jasmine shrugged, but there was pain in her eyes. "My mother died when I was five, my father married a divorced woman with two sons, and they made my life miserable because they blamed my father for their parents' divorce."
"I'm so sorry." Margo put her hand on Jasmine's. "It must have been tough."
She wanted to find out more, but it was obvious that it pained Jasmine to talk about it. They were going to spend several days together on the cruise, and if Jaz felt like telling her more, she would.
Jasmine pushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear. "My stepmother was nice to me until the wedding, so my father thought that he'd found a great substitute mother for me, but she was only nice when my father was around. She wasn't really mean when he wasn't, and she didn't abuse me, but she was resentful and treated me like a nuisance." Jaz let out a breath. "She was jealous of my father's love for me." She gave Margo a tight smile. "But I'm all grown up now, and things are better between us when we don't have to see each other too often."
"What about your stepbrothers?" Edgar asked.
