diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index 51cd855..06e7a91 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -9075,6 +9075,7 @@
                    PyUnicode_KIND_SIZE(rkind, slen-i));
         }
         u = PyUnicode_FromKindAndData(rkind, res, new_size);
+        PyMem_Free(res);
     }
     if (srelease)
         PyMem_FREE(sbuf);