diff --git a/src/misc.c b/src/misc.c
index 2194874f..668bbcb9 100644
--- a/src/misc.c
+++ b/src/misc.c
@@ -813,7 +813,7 @@ static int luv_utf16_to_wtf8(lua_State *L) {
   memcpy(ws, utf16, sz);
   ws[sz/2] = 0;
   sz = uv_utf16_length_as_wtf8(utf16, utf16_len);
-  char *wtf8 = malloc(sz + 1);
+  wtf8 = malloc(sz + 1);
   if (wtf8 == NULL) return luaL_error(L, "failed to allocate %zu bytes", sz + 1);
   ret = uv_utf16_to_wtf8(ws, utf16_len+1, &wtf8, &sz);
   if (ret == 0) {