Dweia
I'm out too. This story was very good at the beginning but the author has railroaded the main character too much now. Advice I would give the author is to give plenty of room between situations where the MC is 'controlled' by others. Otherwise it feels too restrictive and actually starts to push readers away instead of draw them in.
This is deeply disappointing. The MC is clearly the one with bargaining power here and he agreed to something so pointless. He is so worried about murder, but he doesn't get it yet... If he had refused this arrangement, he could have let Asher live. Now they can never form any real friendship and one of them has to kill the other. Just letting Asher give him that mark is akin to killing Asher. Perhaps he will lure Asher to a non magic zone and wipe him out since the familiar spell will deactivate there.