diff --git a/src/hb-open-type-private.hh b/src/hb-open-type-private.hh
index 959f743b9..04e4a4e1b 100644
--- a/src/hb-open-type-private.hh
+++ b/src/hb-open-type-private.hh
@@ -134,9 +134,7 @@ static inline Type& StructAfter(TObject &X)
 
 #define HB_NULL_POOL_SIZE 264
 static_assert (HB_NULL_POOL_SIZE % sizeof (void *) == 0, "Align HB_NULL_POOL_SIZE.");
-// TODO add back HB_INTERNAL once we figure out how to not have that break
-// subset compile
-extern const void * const _hb_NullPool[HB_NULL_POOL_SIZE / sizeof (void *)];
+extern HB_INTERNAL const void * const _hb_NullPool[HB_NULL_POOL_SIZE / sizeof (void *)];
 
 /* Generic nul-content Null objects. */
 template <typename Type>
diff --git a/src/hb-subset.cc b/src/hb-subset.cc
index 5849efd2e..7215b60b0 100644
--- a/src/hb-subset.cc
+++ b/src/hb-subset.cc
@@ -34,6 +34,10 @@
 
 #include "hb-ot-glyf-table.hh"
 
+
+const void * const OT::_hb_NullPool[HB_NULL_POOL_SIZE / sizeof (void *)] = {};
+
+
 struct hb_subset_profile_t {
   hb_object_header_t header;
   ASSERT_POD ();